LJ3- 
17 ^ 



TEACHERS AS PARTICIPATORS 

IN SCHOOL PLANNING AND 

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



BY 

LiLA Ver Planck North, Special Investigator 

BUREAU OF RESEARCH 

WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION 

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 



prepared for and published by 

SCHOOL-VOTERS' LEAGUE 

BOSTON, MASS. 
1915 



^ TEACHERS AS PARTICIPATORS 
IN SCHOOL PLANNING AND 
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



LiLA Ver Planck North, Special Investigator 



BUREAU OF RESEARCH 

WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION 

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 



prepared for and published by 

SCHOOL- VOTERS' LEAGUE 

BOSTON, MASS. 
1915 



/ 






Copyright, 1915, by 
WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION 
BOSTON, MASS. / 



All Bights Reserved 



t/ 

CI.A414244 



f- 



VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY 

BINGHMMTON AND NEW YORK 



OCT 25 19/5 



y 



^^ 



THE SCHOOL-VOTEES' LEAGUE 

which has for a number of years been interested in the welfare 
of the public schools and especially in the effort to draw into 
closer sympathy and cooperation the teachers, parents and ad- 
ministrative staff of the schools, takes pleasure in presenting to 
its friends this study of one of the most vital questions that is 
attracting the attention of educators at the present time. 

September 30, 1915. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 1-2 

Chapter I. Common opinions on the teachers' share 
IN school management 3-8 

Chapter II. Methods by which teachers assist in 

FORMING SCHOOL PLANS 9-58 

Chapter III. Teachers' clubs as factors in school 

ADMINISTRATION . 59-65 

Chapter IV. Facts and forecasts 66-72 

Appendices A and B 73-75 



TEACHERS AS PARTICIPATORS IN 

SCHOOL PLANNING AND SCHOOL 

ADMINISTRATION 



INTRODUCTION 

There seems little chance that the terms used in the heading" 
of this informal discussion will not be clearly understood. Yet, 
since it is hoped readers will be found who differ widely in their 
fields of experience and are therefore likely to attach different 
meanings even to simple words, it may be safe to state the sense 
in which each term of the title will be used. 

First, the *' teacher," from the pupils' point of view, indicates 
the person who presides over the classroom, whether in the ele- 
mentary grade or the high school department. In the children's 
judgment the school principal is not a teacher, even though he 
may, as is frequently the case in smaller communities, have 
a class or two himself. Yet because he must have been at some 
time a class teacher and is still directly identified with the 
work of teaching through all the school day, we include in the 
term ''teacher" the principal, too. We take in also the instruc- 
tors in the special branches, as music, manual training, physical 
training, and since the supervisors of these special branches 
must be practical teachers, we include them. We leave out the 
medical inspectors, school nurses, playground directors, school 
attendance officers, etc. In fact, we take the viewpoint of the 
School Board or Committee, and under the word ** teacher" in- 
clude all persons actually engaged in the work of instruction. 

Next, as to ''school planning." There is planning of all va- 
rieties connected with the daily school business; a fact which 
occasions anguish and perplexity to the unequipped teacher. 
But we do not here refer to the details of procedure appertaining 
to the classroom work, or even to the schedule of times and activi- 



2 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

ties worked out by principals for the conduct of affairs in their 
own buildings. We do mean by ''school planning" the forma- 
tion of policies which shall have general application to the schools, 
or to classes of pupils, and are intended for incorporation as 
authorized school procedure. 

''Administration" when used of public school systems as of 
political, has several cognate meanings. It is used of the legal 
authorities and their official representatives through whom the 
school laws are executed; it is used, too, of the methods devised 
to insure the operation of those laws. A third meaning is com- 
monly, though perhaps not quite properly, attached to the word 
"administration," indicating such legislative action by school 
authorities as is permissible to them under the law of the State. 
Let us take "administration" in its wider sense and include the 
body of school officials, the school regulations they formulate, 
and the methods devised to insure the application of these regu- 
lations. 

"Participators" conveys a meaning both comprehensive and 
elusive. We hope in the succeeding pages to make clearer its use 
in relation to school affairs, but for the present it may be under- 
stood to indicate those who have a share, and more especially a 
responsible share, in the making of school regulations. 

With the terms clearly understood we take up the discussion 
of the topic as a whole. 



CHAPTER I 

COMMON OPINIONS ON THE TEACHERS' SHARE IN 
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 

Outside of the academic circles those holding firmest convic- 
tion on this subject are the school children. In the early years 
of the elementary course the small learner becomes familiar with 
a personality behind a desk; a supreme ruler over subjects to 
whom are presented such tasks and upon whom are imposed such 
conditions as seem to her good. Such is the teacher to the foster- 
ling of a democratic government. True, there is the principal; 
he, however, is simply a dread exactor of penalties, or in rarer 
cases a court of appeals visited by perplexed or enraged parents. 
Neither parents nor principal, however, have a power comparable 
to that of the '* teacher." It is she who really decides every- 
thing. 

As the child mounts higher in the grades, he understands that 
the teacher's responsibility for classroom tasks and conditions 
is shared by the principal. Still he remains convinced that in 
the matters that most directly affect his school life, choice and 
decision lie with the teacher. Pupils in the high schools are less 
convinced of their teachers' power of independent action or de- 
cision, since the domination of higher authorities, especially the 
Procrustean measurements of the colleges, are freely discussed 
in their hearing. Taken as a whole, nevertheless, pupils of all 
grades conceive their teachers to have responsibility in the selec- 
tion of studies, methods and regulations. 

Among parents opinions depend on intelligence and on the 
opportunity for that social intercourse with teachers whereby 
their views and status are learned. But even among the edu- 
cated parents and their associates, especially in a large city, there 
is a prevalent haziness as to the teacher's part in the school plan- 
ning, even in regard to the subject of paramount interest, namely, 
what is being studied and how long it will take to get through 



4 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

with it. If the teacher does not choose the pabulum, the parents 
feel that she at least apportions the daily amount. 

A test of the ordinary knowledge of school management was 
recently made in a certain city. Six married couples of the 
educated and well-to-do class were selected, and in each case 
to husband and wife severally was put the simple question, "Who 
decides what shall be studied in the public schools?" 

The results of the query illustrate the inexact or erroneous 
opinions of the "intelligent classes." Of the six couples chosen 
all were in early married life except Mr. and Mrs. A, who had 
a son and a daughter married and young grandchildren, some of 
whom were in the schools. Mr. and Mrs. A had lived all their 
married life in the city selected. Mr. A was not quite certain 
how the studies were chosen at present, but thought the super- 
intendent used to do it. Mrs. A did not really know, and had 
* * often wondered, as they put in such queer things. ' ' 

The other five couples were of what is termed the highly edu- 
cated class. All the men had completed the high school course, 
three had been graduated from colleges in good standing. 
Four of the women were college alumnae ; one had been a teacher 
in the elementary grades. No one of the women would venture 
a decided answer to the query; two said they would ask their 
husbands. One thought the teacher had a great deal to do with 
it, but that if she wanted to leave out a subject or put in any- 
thing new, she would consult the President of the Board of Edu- 
cation. The men, all voters, all in executive business positions, 
were equally uncertain, with one exception. That one man, out 
of the twelve persons questioned, was perfectly informed on the 
subject, knew the state law, the powers of the School Board, 
and of the Superintendent. As to the teachers, he claimed they 
had no power of decision at all. 

What is the opinion of the teachers themselves as to their par- 
ticipation in school planning ? It is their contention that not only 
do they teach what is prescribed from above, but must teach it as 
the prescriptions specify. Vigorous assertion is made, especially 
in the larger cities, that even as regards class management the 
code to which teachers must pledge allegiance is mainly made up 
of ' ' thou shalt nots. ' ' There is no question that the voice of the 



COMMON VIEWS ON SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 5 

teaching bodies in the majority of strictly organized school sys- 
tems is in accord as to the limitations of their initiative and in- 
fluence in school decisions. They claim that the higher powers 
undervalue their proved experience and are indifferent to their 
ability to deal with problems demanding knowledge of child life 
and capacity. ''The qualities of faithfulness, industry, knowl- 
edge, skill and experience which meet with swift and sure re- 
wards in business are ignored in the schools. ' ' 

' ' There is not, ' ' said a principal in a growing city of the East, 
*'a single contented or enthusiastic teacher in this school sys- 
tem. We have no voice in school affairs." The present method 
of school management is described as "a feudal system that de- 
stroys educational vitality at its source, ' ' and ' ' crushes all initia- 
tive by an octopus-like authority," and in a still larger city a 
prominent principal declared, "Our superintendent is a Czar. 
He does not want the opinions of his teachers." 

We are not here considering the grounds of these opinions or 
their value or justification; we are simply finding the teachers' 
views on the matter. Some teachers have none, but where they 
do have them there is pretty general agreement that the teaching 
force has no adequate share in determining school problems and 
that the schools suffer from the fact. 

The opinions of supervisory or administrative school officers 
as to the share of teachers in school government is largely influ- 
enced by their own subjective attitude. Where the Board of 
Education or the Superintendent or both regard the advice of 
the teaching force as desirable or essential, they will claim that 
they seek and obtain that advice. In an informal or accidental 
way they frequently do. More often intention is mistaken for 
performance. Where authorities, on the other hand, view the so- 
called interference of teachers with suspicion or hostility, they 
claim that the "system" offers teachers every suitable oppor- 
tunity of self-expression through the principal or assistant su- 
perintendent. Yet it is natural, perhaps inevitable, that these 
officers should reflect the administrative attitude and in that case 
they themselves set no value on the teachers' judgments. 

Each of these points of view presents a partial view of the sit- 
uation. We shall get nearer to true conditions by quoting briefly 



6 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the actual facts of law and practice so far as they have been ob- 
tainable. 

I. The true situation as to the teachers' share in school 

GOVERNMENT. 

*' Classroom teachers are the only persons in the world who 
have most of the knowledge necessary for making curricula that 
will fit. What provision is there in the mandatory minimum 
curriculum for bringing this knowledge into use ? " ^ 

It is evident from the rhetorical question of this well-known 
educator that so far as the formulation of the school course is 
concerned, no formal enactment of the State secures the teach- 
ers' aid. Who does then really decide what shall be taught, and 
who calculates the amount which must be learned in a month 
or a year? Certainly the classroom teacher does not, as she, 
and more rarely he, affirms with that air of protesting resigna- 
tion common among employees perpetually impressed with the 
unreason of constituted authorities. The parents should all 
know — (but many of them, as we have seen, do not) ; teachers 
are supposed to know — (but many of them do not) that so far 
as the minimum requirements are concerned, local authorities 
have no power of decision as to what shall be taught. The au- 
thority for the course of study is now almost universally vested 
in the State. In fact 44 States now issue and apply to their 
schools a state syllabus, while 24 make the use of this syllabus 
mandatory. Massachusetts, the first State to establish a State 
Board of Education, has been among the latest to issue a state 
syllabus. In the course of study as issued by Massachusetts 
there are certain subjects which must be taught in the schools 
with an additional list of those which may be ; the latter for the 
most part subjects included in the curriculum of the secondary 
schools. This is in accordance with the principle which main- 
tains the ' ' adoption of a uniform minimum course in which only 
the essentials of fundamental education shall be included, with 
sufficient flexibility to meet local conditions and permitting local 
authorities to include additional instruction." 

1 Frank McMurry, in Report of National Education Association Con- 
ference, 1912. 



COMMON VIEWS ON SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 7 

There are here two openings for the employment of the class- 
room teachers' judgment. First, in deciding upon the funda- 
mental essentials of education for the whole State ; second, in 
choosing for any particular locality the suitable additional sub- 
jects of instruction. Examination of state laws relating to edu- 
cation has discovered no definite provision for consultation of 
teachers in forming the curriculum. The study of the rules and 
regulations of many city systems yields the same results. 

As with the course of study, so with other matters of school 
government, such as the fixing of hours and days of school at- 
tendance, the conditions of promotion, the schedule of teachers' 
salaries, their promotion, transfer or tenure. Responsibility for 
these latter matters lies as a rule with local authority, sometimes 
in the person of the School Board, sometimes with the Superin- 
tendent, never with the teacher in active service. 

But how did this authority come into the hands of those who 
now exercise it ? To trace the evolution of our present city school 
systems is beyond the scope of this essay. It has been ably done 
by those who treat the subject of school administration from the 
historic standpoint. One fact is made clear from their discus- 
sion, namely, that certain important school questions now de- 
cided by centralized authority were in an earlier period dealt 
with by the teaching force itself or through their recommenda- 
tions automatically approved by the School Committee. The 
resulting diversities in quality and practice of school govern- 
ment gave rise to state regulation and superintendence and to 
the tidal wave of centralized administration by which the teach- 
ers' individual judgment has been submerged at present. In 
many large cities the teaching force from the principal down, 
or perhaps up, to the kindergartner, plays a part in the school 
system comparable to that of the intelligent factory hand, who 
is required to be familiar with the workings of a complicated ma- 
chine, but whose true business it is, with a trained dexterity, to 
feed it the material it is planned to manipulate. 

The statement of the last paragraph will probably receive cate- 
gorical denial from school authorities ; it will be questioned, with 
reservations, by teachers of high position conscious of consid- 
erable influence with the Superintendent or School Board. By 



8 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the rank and file, however, of the city teachers of whatever grade 
it will be sustained. Nothing is more common and, one must 
add, more disheartening in discussion with school teachers than 
the disclaiming of all responsibility for the general conditions 
under which their work is done; — ^nothing, that is, unless it be 
the pronounced discontent with particular regulations or re- 
quirements. 

This discontent with the status quo is finding expression in 
methods that increase daily in variety and in influence through 
the multiplication and the aims of voluntary teachers' organi- 
zations, through the pages of teachers' publications, through 
united petitions to boards of education, or to state legislatures. 
Nor is this desire for the admission of teachers to a recognized 
place in school administration confined to the teaching force ; 
it is found among almost all advanced professors of education, 
and has taken actual shape in certain new movements in the 
schools. The conditions described above are not in fact at the 
present time universal ; there are signs that they are on the way 
to become exceptional. What these signs are will now be 
discussed. 



CHAPTER n 

METHODS BY WHICH TEACHERS ASSIST IN FORM- 
ING SCHOOL PLANS 

''Successful supervisory officers are learning that it is advan- 
tageous, in so far as it is possible, to secure the participation of 
teachers in the development of supervisory and administrative 
policies. ' ' 

Professor Stray er, of the New York Teachers' College, makes 
this statement in his Report of the Survey of the School Sys- 
tem of Butte, Montana. The eager inquirer, hoping to obtain 
definite information as to the local habitation of these "success- 
ful supervisory officers," arranges for a personal interview with 
the professor to find that he endorses the opinions expressed 
above, but that he cannot mention, with the exception of New 
York and Chicago, particular cities where the conditions he ap- 
proves are formally established. Other inquiries made during 
personal interviews with educators or professors of educational 
administration give much the same result. There is an impres- 
sion that "movements" leading to teacher-participation in school 
planning are contemplated or in existence, but knowledge of 
the movements themselves or of the channels through which 
they may be discovered is scanty indeed. Results little more 
satisfactory reward examination of the prominent educational 
journals or the publications of the United States Bureau of Edu- 
cation. The reports of the annual meetings of the National 
Education Association contain, amid the numerous topics 
treated by educational experts, not a single instance of the dis- 
cussion as a separate theme of the part teachers may or do play 
in school planning. Diligent perusal does indeed discover scat- 
tered references to the fact that the teachers' knowledge and 
ability are not utilized as a rule by those who deal with admin- 
istrative problems, but in searching for quoted examples of such 



10 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

utilization one crushes tons of ore to find a few ounces of gold. 
Yet the scanty references and the still more infrequent exempli- 
fications of the teaching force as participators in the school coun- 
sels indicate a slow shifting in the administrative point of view. 
A few years ago the most elaborate treatises on school adminis- 
tration, though devoting pages in plenty to the training, duties 
and selection of teachers, omitted to suggest their possible utility 
as advisers. The most recent books of the kind do, however, 
comment, briefly though it be, on the wisdom of employing the 
teachers' aid in forming as well as executing school policies. 
Educators, both of the theoretical and practical classes are, in 
fact, awakening to a realization that the modern centralization 
of school control, modern unification of both content and method 
in the school course, have obscured the value of the individual 
teacher's experience and judgment, while magnifying that of 
the expert supervisor or chief. We quote in this connection 
from a Boston writer of eminent experience : 

"Perhaps there is no greater waste in the working of the 
present public school system than that of the intellectual force 
and enthusiasm of good teachers. Whatever their professional 
training, whatever their zeal, whatever their knowledge gained 
by years of experience with children, they must still teach in 
practically stereotyped ways, what is laid down to be taught in 
each particular grade. ... A teacher's life must be spent 
in trying to mold a heterogenous collection of pupils into one 
pattern in time to send them along to the next teacher, who in 
turn must repeat the process. If any teacher maddened by 
such a wrong, impossible task, rebels, she is likely to be sup- 
planted; if she expresses dissent to the Superintendent or the 
rare committeeman she is viewed with suspicion as a faddist; 
if she confides her woes to her fellow teachers they usually coun- 
sel her to prudent acquiescence in the things that be. As a con- 
sequence, the process of teaching in the public schools, instead 
of making a woman wiser and broader and more influential, 
tends to harden her, along with her poor pupils, into a narrower 
and narrower outline. There should be, therefore, a school fac- 
ulty, similar to a college faculty, wherein courses of study, 



teachers' share in school management 11 

methods of teaching, textbooks, and the thousand questions of 
pedagogies should have free discussion; wherein every new idea 
should have encouragement ; wherein all fair criticism of books 
and methods should have respectful hearing. ' ' ^ 

The frank and terse utterances just quoted set forth opinions 
not often seen in print ; but perchance not singular for all that. 
It is not possible, we believe, that a school council can closely re- 
semble a college faculty, either in make-up or in function, but 
that is not the main point. The central idea is that teachers 
should be utilized as consultants and advisers in school policies. 
It is not a new idea, but for a time it has been considered worn 
out. That it is now reviving there is no question, but the forms 
in which the movement manifests itself are various and distinct 
and should be separately considered. We take up the more 
usual and prominent. 

I. Informal consultation with teachers by school 
authorities. 

This method of using the teachers' experience is rather a sur- 
vival than a revival. In small communities it has always been 
practiced, and even now it is not uncommon in the larger cities 
where it is usually known that certain teachers have the ear of 
the School Board or of the Superintendent. Such confidential 
exchanges sometimes work benefit to condition in the schools, 
more often they are detrimental to their permanent interests, 
since nothing incites the hydra-headed monster to activity more 
certainly than the conviction of favoritism shown to a teacher or 
a group of teachers. The modern superintendent is so pain- 
fully aware of this that he frequently denies himself valued aid 
from teachers because he knows that by consulting them he will 
rouse jealousies and antagonisms. This is so universally the sit- 
uation that caution and reserve have marked the superintendent 
for their own. It is only in the smaller and not yet completely 
stereotyped school systems that free man-to-man consultation 
upon school matters takes place between teachers and officials. 
Nor does it always take place there. 

1 J. P. Munroe, The Educational Ideal. 



12 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

II. Regular or occasional formal meetings with teachers. 

These, also, are more frequently in towns and smaller cities. 
Rightly managed they are productive of mutual understanding 
between working and supervisory forces, and shed needed light 
on the dark places of school management. They may be found 
among all species of school units. A principal, for example, 
may call his grade teachers together for conference on special 
occasions, or at stated times. Regular meetings with the teach- 
ers are found to be far more frequent in high than in elementary 
schools, where the practice varies greatly. A Boston elementary 
school principal asserts he has ''no more conferences than are 
absolutely necessary," while a Newark elementary principal gets 
his teachers together every fortnight. 

Not only does the frequency but the character of the ordinary 
** teachers' meeting" vary. Sometimes the principal tries to 
make these meetings ''improving" to the teachers. One princi- 
pal met his teachers at regular times after school hours and read 
to them portions of an educational work which they were then 
asked to discuss. "They did not seem interested and it 
was given up," reported the superintendent in that city in a 
tone of discouragement. It was evident that he (and he was a 
charitable man, too!) had but a low opinion of those teachers' 
attitude toward professional advancement. 

The principal of a noted New Jersey high school, on the other 
hand, has a weekly conference with his teachers in which any 
one may advance a topic related to school conduct or policy. 
There is no lack of interest in these meetings. This principal 
and corps of teachers are pulling together in splendid team work. 
The superintendent in a town with a number of large elementary 
schools meets his teachers at stated times for mutual discussion 
of educational problems and school policy. His teachers are full 
of buoyant energy. Not ten miles from this cheerful school 
system is one in which the general body of teachers is uneasy 
and depressed, the principal of the flourishing high school the 
most depressed of all. This is the more singular, since from 
this town have gone forth to larger fields two superintendents 
in succession whose incumbency has been marked by a power and 



TEACHERS SHARE IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 13 

originality productive of high reputation. The gloom settled 
down upon the arrival of a superintendent who tells his teach- 
ers what they must do and has no further relations with them. 

In the large city school systems there is little opportunity in 
the ordinary teachers' meeting for expression of judgment or 
opinion on the broader school questions. There is another side 
to this, as principals and superintendents very well know. In 
the most cheerful school system and in the most lively open-to-all 
conference teachers are often unresponsive to invitations to ex- 
press their views. They have a settled conviction that these 
views will have little or no influence upon the discussions of the 
central office where final decision is made. Teachers are fre- 
quently astray in this conviction ; their suggestions are in reality 
seldom regarded with the indifference they resent, nor is official 
proceeding invariably of the rigid character they suppose. But it 
is difficult to convince them of this when so-called ' ' conferences ' ' 
are assemblies in which the conspicuous voice is that of the pre- 
siding principal or superintendent, and the utterances of that 
voice are in the way of instruction or admonition only. Weari- 
ness, disdain, indifference, or downright cowardice lock the teach- 
ers' tongues until, the ordeal over, amid groups of their own 
kind or in the ear of personal friends they pour forth their 
real opinions with untutored eloquence. 

The ordinary teachers' meeting in large cities, then, is, on the 
whole, an unsatisfactory medium for the expression of the teach- 
ers' views and judgments. Even where it is so conducted as 
to elicit these views, there is seldom an attempt to embody a 
general consensus of opinion or some approved individual sug- 
gestion in a form that may carry weight with the school officials. 

III. Temporary conferences of committees of teachers 

FORMED FOR A SPECIAL PURPOSE. 

Within the last decade there have been in school circles uni- 
versal stir and debate in regard to the value of the content and 
customary partition of the accepted courses of study, especially 
as laid down for the elementary schools. The large proportion 
of retarded pupils, the appalling dropping out after the fifth or 



14 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

sixth grades, the dismal failures of first year high school pupils, 
the loud complaints of employers, disgusted by the illiteracy and 
incapableness of young wage-earners, have all created growing 
doubt as to the practical fitness of the school work children are 
compelled by law to undertake. Throughout the length and 
breadth of the land revisions of the course of study are in prog- 
ress. Nor are these revisions left entirely to the educational ex- 
perts, or to the administration's Committee on Courses of Study, 
if such there be. It is discovered that the classroom teacher 
alone knows whatever there is to know about the reactions of 
the child under the application of the prescribed educational 
dose. Wherefore in many different cities committees or confer- 
ences of teachers have been called in consultation on the modi- 
fication of the curriculum, and have worked diligently for weeks 
or months in the attempt to extricate the schools from this di- 
lemma. Consciousness that their trained experience had found 
at last its opportunity has given the teachers at once exhilaration 
and dignity. 

The disposition made of the recommendations or reports re- 
sultant from these conferences is somewhat uncertain. Usually 
their work is incorporated with that of school officials or com- 
mittees. An example in point is the method used in a recent 
revision of the course of study in the schools of Newark, New 
Jersey. The report of the Board of Education states: **The 
revision of the course of study has been prepared chiefly by the 
City Superintendent and his assistants. It embodies sugges- 
tions made by Committees of the Principals ' Association, and by 
the Grammar Vice-Principals' Association, and by a number of 
individual teachers." 

Or the conclusions of the teachers may take the form of a sep- 
arate formal report which passes into the hands of the central 
school authorities, occasionally to reappear as a printed bulletin 
or syllabus. More frequently it is laid on the table or possibly 
under it, since it disappears from view — it may be for years 
or it may be forever. In any case, diligent examination of the 
rules and regulations of the school boards of our larger cities, 
reveals no definite provision for consultation with teachers on 
the school curriculum, or for formal recognition of their recom- 



teachers' share in school management 15 

mendations in regard to it. It is, however, taken for granted 
that teachers may be called upon to render extra service in this 
connection, but not that the service shall be acknowledged or used 
by the higher authorities. 

Teachers whose requested recommendations on school curricu- 
lum or management though prepared at cost of much labor have 
thus sunk into oblivion, will not readily respond to a second 
call for such service. We are all thus constituted; the experi- 
ence of a fruitless labor is a most effective anesthetic for energy. 

IV. Permanent teacher councils officially constituted. 

Certain school officials have slowly but surely come to the reali- 
zation of the "waste of the intellectual force of the teachers" 
and have, by the organization of permanent councils or confer- 
ences, made it possible to use their teachers' experience. The 
examples of this movement are few, scattered and, from want of 
authoritative material, exceedingly difficult to present in clear 
description. Such examples as it has been possible to find are 
of several different types as to inception, purpose and charac- 
ter. 

1. TEACHERS' COVS^CILS ORGANIZED ON THE INITIATIVE OF 
THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, BUT WITH NO LEGAL 
STATUS. 

a. The Round Table Committee of Los Angeles. 

We cross the continent, as is not uncommon, to find the earliest 
example of a progressive movement in public administration. 
Superintendent Francis of Los Angeles believes his Round Table 
to be the first permanent organization with teacher-participation 
in view. The membership of the Round Table consists of rep- 
resentatives elected from the voluntary teachers' clubs, which, 
as is customary, are formed on grade or occupational lines; as 
the * * Teachers ' Club, " ' ' Principals ' Club, ' ' etc. Kindergartners, 
*' primary" and "grammar" school teachers, the intermediate 
and high school teachers, and the supervisors of special 
branches form the representation, which is proportional to the 
numbers in each class of teachers. The superintendent appoints 
three members at large. "Meetings," writes the superintend- 



16 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

ent, ' ' discuss questions of general interest, such as salaries, books, 
teaching methods, special activities, etc." 

More detailed information in regard to this Round Table is 
desirable. We do not know whether these discussions result in 
formal reports or recommendations brought before the Board of 
Education, whether the superintendent presides, whether there 
is committee work, how often the Round Table meets, etc. We 
do know that the committee has no legal status and that with the 
death or removal of the superintendent, the Los Angeles school 
teachers might figuratively suffer from loss of voice. 

h. The vuin attempt in Portland, Oregon. 

From the more northerly shores of the Pacific came a rumor 
that the Superintendent of Schools in Portland, Oregon, stimu- 
lated by the example of Los Angeles, proposed to establish a 
teachers' council. He was written to for information and re- 
plied as follows : ' ' Last year I thought of appointing an advis- 
ory council of principals and teachers, but owing to lack of 
harmony among the various teachers' organizations, it was 
thought best not to do so at that time. Since then nothing has 
been done in the matter." 

This is very sad, but not so sad as the next. 

c. The legally instituted council m Dallas, Texas, and its fate. 

Superintendent Lef evre of Dallas, after consultation with lead- 
ing teachers, recommended to the Board of Education in 1906 a 
plan for the organization of a teachers' council. The Board ap- 
proved, and a representative council was organized, making its 
reports directly to the Board. Instead of bringing about a 
greater degree of cooperation, the council deliberations divided 
rather than united the teachers and their superintendent. The 
superintendent resigned and the irritated Board of Education 
dissolved the council. The present superintendent is quoted as 
saying: "We have no earthly use for such an institution. It 
was the source of more political broils, more prejudices and dis- 
putes, and more political activity on the part of teachers than 
anything ever instituted before in our schools. Certain teach- 
ers who were candidates for membership in the council were 
so politically active that they had campaign managers who as- 



teachers' share in school management 17 

sisted in pulling the wires, soliciting votes among the teachers 
and thus securing their election. This one thing got the teach- 
ers and the schools into trouble it will take ten years to erad- 
icate. ' ' 

"The Dallas council," thinks a prominent New England su- 
perintendent, ''was organized on a wrong basis." Yet it was 
practically the same basis, as will be shown later, as that of 
a more important council so far successful. 

d. The Council of New Britain, Connecticut, the solitary 
example of its kind in New- England. 

The superintendent of the New Britain schools, Dr. Holmes, 
has furnished full information on the New Britain council, which 
is now in 1915 entering upon its fifth year of service. ' ' This or- 
ganization, ' ' he writes, ' ' which is the natural development of the 
principle underlying the management of the New Britain schools, 
is almost unique among professional organizations, one of its 
chief purposes being to furnish to all factors of the teaching 
body an opportunity to confer together for the highest efficiency 
of the schools." 

The New Britain School Council has a constitution and by- 
laws, both short, clear and simple. As defined in the constitu- 
tion its purposes are: 

1. To secure a more active and effective participation of the 
teachers in the professional direction of the schools. 

2. To afford the largest possible opportunity for initiative on 
the part of the teachers. 

3. To encourage professional improvement through study and 
discussion of important problems of education and school man- 
agement. 

4. To develop the sense of solidarity of the teaching body and 
an increasing appreciation of community of interest and re- 
sponsibility among teachers of all grades. 

5. To furnish the teaching body a ready and effective means 
for the expression of its sentiments or opinions with reference 
to questions of school policy. 

The by-laws provide: That the members of the Council 
shall be: 



18 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

1. All principals, ex-officio. 

2. All supervisory officers and special teachers, ex-officio. 

3. One representative from each elementary grade, including 
kindergarten, to be elected by members of the grade. 

4. Four representatives from the high school to be elected by 
the teachers of the high school, one for each of the four years of 
the course, if possible. 

The officers are a President, Vice-President and Secretary, 
elected by ballot by the members on the last meeting of the school 
year. These officers constitute a Program Committee to pro- 
pose and arrange lines of work and investigation, subject to the 
approval of the council. 

The regular meetings of the council are at 8 p. m., on the 
first Tuesday of each month of the school year. 

It is also provided that there shall be meetings of all the teach- 
ers in each elementary grade on the last Monday in November, 
January, February, March and April, and such other dates as 
the grade teachers may determine. At the April meeting the 
teachers of each grade elect by ballot a representative to serve for 
one year in the council. The council further has power to ap- 
point from time to time committees for special investigation and 
report. It has, however, no standing committees other than the 
program committee. 

The New Britain Council since its inception has kept its spe- 
cial function in mind: ''It works sometimes through conference, 
sometimes through committees, but comes back always in the 
summarizing of results to practical recommendations for the New 
Britain schools." The schools include the child population of 
a manufacturing city with the usual large proportion of chil- 
dren of foreign birth or parentage. To mold them into effec- 
tive citizenship is the united purpose of the superintendent, the 
supervisory officers and the 240 teachers. 

For 1913-14 the Program Committee arranged a series of 
studies on the Psychological Bases of Teaching, a subject which 
has an academic flavor, but which as worked out proved not only 
eminently informing and practical, but opened the way for val- 
uable contributions from the teachers' individual or united ex- 



teachers' share in school management 19 

perience. Among the sub-topics are : Artificial and natural in- 
terest, development of habit from instinct, practical applica- 
tion to the schools of New Britain. The next fall the subject 
was developed along different lines, as: Causes of non-promo- 
tion, losses from school, nativity, parentage, language of pupils. 

The study of the present year includes : The individual child 
in school (among its sub-divisions are. How far is the usual 
course of study and school organization responsible for unsatis- 
factory progress? How can the schools better know their chil- 
dren, and how turn their genuine outside interest to account?), 
and Records, — the kind that help the pupil. 

The Council of New Britain was the Superintendent's idea, 
and since its beginning he has been a working member. He 
writes : ' ' I have found it a great help in the administration of 
the schools. It has never failed." 

It is one of the anomalies of the school situation in these 
United States that this valuable and successful organization has 
so far no legal recognition from the School Board of New Brit- 
ain. We can simply conjecture on the declarations of other 
school authorities, that the Board concedes the advantage of the 
council under the wise guidance of the present Superintendent 
but scents possible danger under some other conditions. 

e. Boston Official Associations and Councils. 

Among the studies issued as Bulletins by the United States 
Bureau of Education is one published in 1911 entitled '^Agen- 
cies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service. ' ' ^ The author 
devotes two or three final pages to the subject of the participa- 
tion of teachers in the determination of educational policies, and 
in introducing the topic writes, ' ' There appears to be at this time 
but one city in the United States where a beginning has been 
made at giving the teachers official and constitutional right to 
participate in determining the educational policies under which 
they are working. This city is Dallas, Texas. ' ' The writer pro- 
ceeds to give an account of the establishment of the teachers' 
council of Dallas by the Board of Education, at the proposal of 

1 W. C. Ruediger, Professor of Educational Psychology in The George 
Washington University. 



20 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Superintendent Lefevre. The subsequent disastrous history of 
the movement was not known, of course, in 1911. 

Professor Kuediger then speaks of the privileges of making 
suggestions in educational matters extended to teachers, in which 
connection he states: 

''This administrative method of allowing the teachers a voice 
has been most fully organized and established in Boston. There 
the teachers are allowed not only to take part in making the 
course of study, but also in determining other educational poli- 
cies. ' ' 

The reference above is to a plan supposed to be already in oper- 
ation, and it is evidently the conviction of the author that it 
has succeeded in meeting the aims expressed in the Boston School 
Report of 1909, issued by Superintendent Stratton D. Brooks, 
from which we quote the following: 

* ' Granted that the schools of the same system should have rea- 
sonable uniformity in aims, purposes and policies, the most impor- 
tant problem of school administration is what these policies should 
be and who shall determine them. One grave defect in the Amer- 
ican Education is the lack of any institutional method for the 
participation of teachers in the determination of major educa- 
tional policies. A detrimental effect of an autocratic system is 
the development in the teaching force of a lack of responsibility 
for major things and also the growth of a feeling of waiting for 
orders, rather than a feeling of intelligent participation in the 
larger elements of educational work. What is needed is an 
organization that provides for the fullest consideration of educa- 
tional policies by teachers, by principals and by the supervisory 
force, wherein every major problem may be discussed with the 
fullest harmony and with most complete information as to its 
bearings upon the interests of pupils, of the teachers and of the 
community. Such an organization should have official recogni- 
tion and become a permanent institution. ' ' ^ 

This large plan had not been carried out in the period covered 
by this report, but what was held to be a beginning had been 
made at the top of the school ladder, namely in the high schools. 

1 Report of the Boston School Committee, 1909. 



teachers' share in school management 21 

The Boston High School Councils. 

As is well known, the Boston Secondary schools have a long 
history and by consequence many peculiarities of character and 
development, partly indicated by their titles, as here given. 

BOSTON NORMAL^ LATIN, AND HIGH SCHOOLS 

Normal School English High School 

Pubhc Latin School Girls' High School 

Girls' Latin School High School of Commerce 

Mechanic Arts High School High School of Practical Arts 

In addition there are eight high schools of the usual type in 
outlying sections of greater Boston, some of them boasting dis- 
tinguished names in the long lists of former head masters. 

Among these 16 secondary schools had arisen much diversity 
of view on scholastic and administrative matters with some conse- 
quent waste of effectiveness. With the purpose of unifying 
aims and gaining agreement as to methods through the teachers' 
own deliberations there were formed in March, 1907, eight High 
School Councils, each representing a department of instruction. 
The members of the Councils are the Heads of Departments, who, 
in Boston, if men, are termed Masters; if women. First Assistants. 
The responsibilities of these positions are identical, but the dif- 
ference in name and sex means large difference in salary in favor 
of the men. The appointments are made by the City Superintend- 
ent. Each Council consists therefore, of from ten to sixteen 
members, the number depending on the arrangement in the dif- 
ferent schools as to the number of teachers ranked as Heads of 
Departments. The Science Council, for instance, has fifteen 
members, of which two are women; the English Council four- 
teen members, nine men and five women. The Councils meet 
on one afternoon of each month; their discussions are confined 
strictly to professional questions, which may be sent to them by 
the Board of Superintendents or proposed by their own mem- 
bership. Standing committees on textbooks, programs, etc., are 
usual. There is no joint meeting of representatives from all the 
Councils to discuss matters of common interest. Reports of each 



22 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

meeting are sent first to the City Superintendent, and by him 
to the Association of Head Masters, as the principals of high 
schools are termed, and by them turned over to the disposition 
of the Board of Superintendents. Matters discussed by Coun- 
cils may or may not be made known to the assistant instructors 
in the several departments, who therefore have no recognized 
interest before or after in the deliberation. Questions relating 
to the general policy of the high school or of the schools in gen- 
eral are not discussed. Recommendations as to courses of study 
in special subjects have been at times presented to the School 
Committee by certain councils, and sometimes they have been 
adopted and sometimes they have not. 

It is difficult to see in this arrangement even the beginning 
of the development of that plan for the ''discussion of major 
policies as bearing upon the interests of the community." Dis- 
satisfaction with the present status of the Councils is sometimes 
found among the several hundred high school teachers ranking 
as masters, assistants, instructors, and assistant instructors, who 
complain that there is no regular method by which those not in 
the Councils may represent their views on department affairs 
or learn the consensus of opinion on matters discussed in the 
Councils. 

The utility of these Councils is dubious. There is undeniable 
value in the discussion by heads of departments of common 
academic problems, but such discussion is already practiced in 
the voluntary clubs made up of high school teachers, as the High 
School Masters' Club of men and the High School Assistants' 
Club of women. Altogether the primary design of these organi- 
zations, if in truth it were to provide a means for the expression 
of views on the "larger policies," has been entirely lost sight of. 
The special interests of the high schools, already sufficiently 
absorbing to their faculties, are brought into greater prominence 
by the existence of the Council's prominence. 

The Boston High School Councils are quoted even in so recent 
a publication as Dr. Van Sickles' "Progress in City School Sys- 
tems" as an instance of teacher-participation in school planning. 
It will be seen that they are so in the most limited sense and 
that their real influence upon the decisions of the administration 



TEACHEES' SHARE IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 



23 



is negligible. However, their purpose, if not their practice, 
gives them a place in this section.^ 

The Boston Masters' Association. 

The secretary of this association believes it was formally 
though not officially organized about 1878 but that prior to that 
date informal meetings were held regularly. It originated as 
a voluntary association to "discuss practical educational ques- 
tions and to improve educational practice by an exchange of 
views." It has had for sometime, however, an official status, 
and is, as stated in the Report of the Boston School Committee, 
"the official meeting of all principals for the purpose of dis- 
cussing topics of common interest and receiving announcements 
from the Superintendent." Each principal is expected to at- 
tend or to send a representative to the regular meeting held each 
month of the school term. A social meeting preceded by a din- 
ner is held four times a year. There are no regular dues, but 
a special tax is levied from time to time as needed. The present 
membership numbers 94. 

A list of the "topics of common interest" discussed for the 
year 1913-14 is as follows: 



TOPICS DISCUSSED IN" BOSTON MASTERS' ASSOCIATION, 1913-14 

Month Topic Speaker 

October 



November 



The Work of the Tear. 
Courtis Tests in Arith- 
methic. 

The Teaching of Arith- 
metic. 



The City Superintendent. 
A.n Assistant Superintend- 
ent. 

The Principal of an Ele- 
mentary School. 

A Master in the Normal 
School. 



1 These Councils were established imder a previous administration of 
the schools, and the feeling found among many teachers that their influ- 
ence with the administration is very little and their value doubtful, 
results to a large extent from conditions existing at an earlier date. 

Since the present superintendent took charge of the schools there has 
been evidence that increased weight is given to the recommendations of 
the Councils. 



24 


TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 


Month 


Topic Speaker 


December 


Form and Substance in An Assistant Principal in 
Composition. an Elementary School 

(a woman). 
A First Assistant in the 
Latin School (a woman). 



January 



Arithmetic once more. 



February English Composition. 



March 



April 



May 



June 



Some Addresses at the 
Superintendents' Meet- 
ing at Richmond. 

Summer Review Schools. 
Relations of Vocational 
and Liberal Education. 



Measurements 
cieney. 



of Effi- 



An Assistant Superintend- 
ent. 

The Master of an Elemen- 
tary School (a woman). 

The Master in Normal 
School. 

Master in Mechanic Arts 
High School. 

A Principal of an Elemen- 
tary School. 

A Principal of an Elemen- 
tary School. 

Reports by five Assistant 
Superintendents. 



An Assistant Superintend- 
ent. 

State Commissioner of 
Education. 

A Harvard Professor of 
Education. 

The City Superintendent. 
A Special Committee. 



Business Matters. 
Promotion of Submas- 

ters. 
Memorial Services. 

Two characteristics of these discussions by the assembled di- 
recting force of the Boston schools are prominent: First, the 
topics discussed in five of the nine meetings concerned technicali- 
ties in the course of study ; in the three spring meetings subjects 



teachers' share in school management 25 

of broader interest were introduced. In no case was any gen- 
eral policy discussed or any consensus of opinion on school man- 
agement asked or offered. Discussions were not intended, as in 
New Britain, to lead directly to a / ' summary of recommenda- 
tions for the schools." 

Again, discussion was largely dominated by the superintend- 
ing force. Omitting the special business meetings in June, there 
were in eight meetings twenty-one speakers on the various topics 
and sub-topics. Of these two were invited from outside, nine 
were principals or teachers and ten members of the Board of 
Superintendents. 

Excepting as thus imperfectly represented in the Masters' As- 
sociation, there has been instituted for the Elementary School 
Teachers of Boston no form of participation in school planning. 
That Boston school authorities have at some time recognized and 
deplored that fact is proven by a further quotation from the Re- 
port of 1909, with which we conclude this view of the Boston 
situation. 

*'For the elementary schools the problem of the permanent 
organization and of official recognition of a systematic participa- 
tion of teachers in the determination of major educational 
policies is more difficult but fully as desirable. It is hoped that 
with the help of leading teachers in the elementary schools a 
system of teacher-participation may soon be devised." ^ 

2. COUNCILS OF TEACHERS ESTABLISHED BY THE AUTHOR- 
ITY OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 

Two conspicuous examples appear under this head, and so far 
as the inclusion of the whole teaching body is concerned only 
two. But these are found in the two largest school systems of 
the country, namely, those of New York and Chicago. They are 
infants in age, still in the stage of experiment, and although to 

1 For the place of the large committees of teachers now revising the 
elementary course of study for Boston schools, see under Section III, page 
13, of this chapter. The policy of employing the aid of these teachers 
in this movement is not adopted by the School Committee as a part of 
the regulations for Boston schools, and cannot be considered as officially 
instituted. 



26 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

a great degree successful in their aims, are regarded by some 
cautious educators and school officials as having not yet posi- 
tively proved their case. 

An intensive study of these two great councils must be re- 
garded in its suggestions as the central interest of this discus- 
sion. 

a. The Chicago Teachers' Councils. 

Inception and Organization. 
When some years ago the present Superintendent of Chicago 
Public Schools was District Superintendent of Schools, she be- 
came convinced that the general success and progress of educa- 
tion was hampered by the fact that no effective method existed 
by which the judgment of teachers in school matters could be 
ascertained or utilized. After consultation with school people 
who shared her views, she presented in 1899 to the Board of Edu- 
cation a plan for forming a system of teachers' councils. The 
result was the unofficial establishment of councils or rather con- 
ferences of teachers. The movement ''looked forward to a full 
expression of the judgment of principals and teachers on ques- 
tions pertaining to courses of study, textbooks, departmental 
work, duties and advancement of teachers and other educational 
topics." ''That these councils were not productive of a general 
interest in these questions by the teaching body was largely due, ' ' 
writes the Chicago Superintendent, ' ' to the fact that their origin 
and conduct were independent of the Board of Education." 
After Mrs. Young was installed as Superintendent of the Chicago 
Schools she continued her interest in this movement, but though 
exercising persistent effort for three years to secure the consen- 
sus of opinion from teachers in the attempt to simplify the course 
of study in the elementary and high schools, it was found that 
owing to "various and sundry causes" such consensus of opin- 
ion could not be obtained. Among these obstructing causes Mrs. 
Young emphasizes the "evolution in the membership of a body 
of teachers 7,000 strong of a group consciousness which brings 
to the surface tendencies sometimes ideal, sometimes dangerous. 
Chief among the dangerous tendencies is that of disintegration 
into aggregated units so independent of each other that they be- 



teachers' share in school management 27 

come what Mr. Gompers terms ** specialists in industry,'' a class 
whom he defines as those who know but one part of a trade and 
absolutely nothing of any other part of it. ''With large school 
systems organized under our present methods, supervisors and 
superintendents, though occasionally invited to address teachers' 
clubs, are practically cut off from participation in the life of 
the teaching body of which they should be active members." 

Notwithstanding this somewhat discouraging experience, Mrs. 
Young continued to have confidence in the possibility of organ- 
izing on a democratic basis a teachers ' council ' ' that will embody 
in the school system the ideal for which America stands sponsor. ' ' 

In the meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, February, 
1913, the Superintendent requested that she be given authority 
to present a plan for the organization of the teaching corps into 
councils for discussion of educational questions, and for the 
election from these councils of a General Council which should 
represent all classes of positions in the system, such council to 
be presided over by the Superintendent of Schools. The aim 
of the movement was ' ' to give expression or voice to the different 
attitudes or judgments of the teaching force and to enable the 
Superintendent to become conversant at first hand with these 
attitudes and judgments. ' ' The requested authority was granted 
by the Board, and a plan was made out with the aid of a commit- 
tee of teachers representing the various voluntary teachers' or- 
ganizations. This was first presented to the Board of Education 
Committee on School IManagement. At its March meeting the 
plan was adopted by the Board. The general plan is given in 
the following extract from the proceedings of the Chicago Board 
of Education. 

The Plan of the Chicago CouNCHiS 
Board of Education, City of Chicago 



EDUCATION DIVISION 
EXTRACT FROM PROCEEDINGS OF MARCH 20, 1913 

Organize Council of Heads of Teaching Force 

The Superintendent of Schools recommends that all members of the 
teaching forces of the City of Chicago be organized into Group Councils 
for the discussion of educational questions, and for the election from 



28 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

these Group Councils of a General Council, which shall represent all 
classes of positions in the system; said General Council to be presided 
over by the Superintendent of Schools. 

The Superintendent further recommends that the organization into 
Group Councils shall be as follows : 

Number of 
Title of Groups Groups 

Teachers in Elementary Schools 30 

Principals in Elementary Schools 8 

Teachers in High Schools 8 

Principals of High Schools 2 

Assistant and District Superintendents 3 

Teachers of Household Arts 4 

Teachers of Physical Education ,. 4 

Teachers of Manual Training 4 

Special Teachers of Music and Teachers of Music in Normal 

College and in High Schools 2 

Special Teachers of Art and Teachers of Art in Normal Col- 
lege and in High Schools 2 

German 1 

Faculty of Normal College 3 

Supervisors of Manual Training and of Household Arts in High 
Schools and in Elementary Schools, the Child Study De- 
partment, and the Supervisor of Physical Education 1 

Teachers of Special Classes 2 

74 

That each group upon assembling for its first meeting each year, 
shall by electing a chairman and a secretary and adopting its own rules 
of procedure, effect an organization that shall be permanent for one 
year. 

That each of these groups shall elect one delegate to the General 
Council, who shall serve during the current school year; provided, in 
case the differences in points of view are too decided to be presented by 
any one person, then the Group Council shall elect two delegates to the 
General Council. 

That the General Council shall consist of delegates from the Group 
Councils, to be elected as heretofore provided. 

The Group Councils shall meet at 1.30 p. m., on the second Friday of 
the School months of October and March of each year, and at other 
times at the call of the Superintendent of Schools. 

The General Council shall meet at 10.30 o'clock on the Saturday morn- 
ing following the Group Council meetings, in the Assembly Room of 
the Board of Education. 

The aim and purpose of the Group Councils and the General Council 



teachers' share in school management 29 

shall be to give full and free expression or voice to the different at- 
titudes and judgments of the teaching force, on questions pertaining to 
Courses of Study, Textbooks, Departmental Work, Duties and Ad- 
vancement of Teachers, and the General Study of Educational ques- 
tions by the entire public school teaching corps, and to enable the 
Superintendent to become conversant at first hand with these attitudes 
and judgments. 

The subjects for consideration by the Group Councils and the Gen- 
eral Council may be proposed by the Superintendent of Schools, or 
the General Council, or any one of the Group Councils. 

The first meeting of the Group Councils will be held on April 18th 
and the second meeting of the Group Councils will be held on May 23rd. 
The subject for discussion at the first meeting will be "The Course of 
Study as It Applies to the Kindergarten and the First Six Grades of 
the Elementary Schools." The subject for consideration at the second 
meeting will be "The Course of Study in the Seventh and Eighth 
Grades and High Schools." 

It is not the purpose of these two meetings to discuss details of time, 
method, or material. The nature of the discussion will be such as 
would be suggested through a general view of the course, and the rela- 
tions which the work of each grade bears to the others, and to the gen- 
eral problem of public education. 

At the first meeting the groups will assemble according to the fol- 
lowing arrangement: 

Should the teachers of any school desire to be placed in a different 
group from the one herein listed, application should be made to the 
Superintendent for authority to make the change. 

Activities of the Chicago Teachers' Councils. 

The organization of the Council was effected in the Spring of 
1913 ; its regular sessions began with the October meeting of that 
year. The subject was announced to the Group Councils through 
a printed notice sent from the office of the Education Division 
of the Board of Education and signed by Ella Flagg Young, 
Chairman of General Council. The general subject of discus- 
sion, together with some of the questions connected with it was 
stated as follows: 

a. Are the terms of vacation high and elementary schools, which have 

been conducted in July, sufficiently firmly established to be con- 
sidered as part of the "School Year"? 

b. If (a) is answered affirmatively, how shall the School Year be di- 

vided — into 4 quarters of 12 weeks each, or 2 semesters of 20 
weeks and a term of 8 weeks'? 



30 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

c. Should a year's work (the grade) cover 42 weeks or 36 weeks'? 

d. Should a teacher's required year be 3 quarters or 3% quarters? 

e. How should teachers desiring to teach 48 weeks be selected? 

f. Could there be a variation in the time of the "Long Vacation" for 

those desiring it at other than the usual time? 

The above questions are only a few of those which will arise 
in the Councils. 

Sessions : 

October 10, Group Councils, 1.30 p. m. to 3.30 p. M. 
October 11, General Council, 10.00 A. M. to 12.00 noon. 

Members will report non-attendance at Group Council sessions 
as for any other school session. 

The next meeting of the Council took place six months later, 
March, 1914. The subject as announced beforehand in a notice 
from the Superintendent was : 

The School Day 

1. Its length : 

a. In the school building. 

b. At home in the evening. 

These two points to be considered as regards the teacher, the 
child, the pupil, the student. 

2. The possibility of determining the above points definitely. 

During the school year in which these two meetings occurred, 
namely 1913-14, the Chicago school system had been passing 
through the stirring period of a scientific '^ survey" and was 
feeling a mingled exhilaration and dismay, comparable to that 
of the patient who emerges from a major operation to discover 
that although he had been far worse off than he knew, he still re- 
tains his vital organs and may count on them to perform their 
functions with little diminution of activity. 

The findings of the Survey were published during the Sum- 
mer of 1914. In the fall the Superintendent of Schools in her 
notification of the topic scheduled for the October meeting of 
the Teachers' Council, stated that she had intended to invite the 
teaching corps to select a subject, but that an intense desire to 
have the findings of the Survey discussed led her to propose the 
following: *' Methods of Instruction in Elementary and High 
Schools, Particularly in Mathematics, History, and Art Con- 



TEACHERS SHARE IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 31 

struction, as Discussed in the Survey.'* It was added that it 
was open to any Council to include among the topics other sub- 
jects of instruction that were discussed in the Survey. The next 
meeting of the Council will be held in the current month, March, 
1915. The notice states that any one of the following reports of 
1914 may be discussed: 

The School Plant. Physical Education. 

Administration. Humane and Moral Education. 

Child Study. Social Efficiency. 

Results of Council deliberations. 

Possibly deliberation is not the precise word to use in con- 
nection with these debates, since they lead apparently to no for- 
mal recommendations, and conclusions, if definite, do not seem 
to be embodied in a form capable of record or to serve as a basis 
for further action or deliberation on the part of the Board of 
Education or its Committees. In respect to this Mrs. Young 
writes under date of March 1st, 1915: ** Delegates meet me the 
morning after the Group Councils have met and give an oral 
statement of the consensus of opinion in the various subdivisions 
and of the recommendations there made. If I approve of these 
recommendations, I act upon them. Several thus far have been 
found of value." 

Peculiar features of the Chicago Councils. 

Legal status. — Although the Councils exist by authority of the 
Board of Education, they are so peculiarly constituted as to 
have legal standing only on the condition of direct management 
by the Superintendent of Schools. This officer is not only Chair- 
man, but president of the General Council. There are no Com- 
mittees and therefore no reports based on extended sifting of 
data relating to proposed action or to existing conditions. The 
General Council does not even advise as a body ; it simply reports 
the consensus of opinion of the Group Councils, discussing sub- 
jects in this light with what is reported to be ''unrestricted free- 
dom," but with no definite power of recommendation. 

Imperfections of the organization. — Mrs. Young frankly admits 
the scheme is still imperfect; "The first meetings," she states, 



32 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

*' showed need of reorganization. The Council is not too large, 
but the time is too short. ' ' A whole day, rather than two hours, 
is needed for due consideration of the topics. Rather, one is 
fain to think, the topics are too large to be profitably discussed, 
much less settled, in an open meeting at one short session. The 
topics, it would seem, should be announced to the Group Coun- 
cils a long time ahead and thrashed out in separate committees, 
with some resultant formulated opinions presented, not "orally" 
to the General Council. That any consensus of opinion is ar- 
rived at by present meetings is evidence of skillful leading of 
discussion on the part of the chairman. Some reorganization is 
in contemplation. Greater frequency of meetings is obviously 
needed; but it is not unlikely that teachers however desirous 
of ** expression, " will object to giving up many Saturdays to 
the discussion of school affairs. 

h. The New York Teachers' Council. 

Origin of the Council. 

''I feel confident from reading the increasing literature on 
the subject, appearing in various parts of the country and 
abroad, that the teacher's participation in the planning as well 
as the managing of education is bound to come and to come with 
benefit to the schools. . . . We ought not to discourage sugges- 
tion for change ; we ought not merely to permit it. We ought 
to ask for it. " ^ 

The history of the various discontents, desires and convictions 
which led to the official establishment of teacher-participation in 
the counsels of the New York Public School System in 1913 would 
present on the one hand a significant study of the psychological 
responses of a special professional group to its occupational con- 
ditions; and on the other, shows from the point of view of that 
group some of the defects in method and failures in result 
in what is probably the most completely organized system of 
school administration of the present time. Among the chief 
failures, it was claimed, was the non-utilization in institutional 
form of the valuable experience and judgment of its teaching 

1 Report of the President, Board of Education. New York City. Janu- 
ary, 1914. 



teachers' share in school management 33 

body. A moYement to secure representation in the school sys- 
tem was initiated by some of the teaching force in New York in 
1900, when the new City Charter was in process of formation, 
with Henry Taft as Chairman of the Committee of Revision and 
Nicholas Murray Butler as Chief Adviser on the Educational 
Section. At that time a delegation of teachers waited upon the 
Revision Committee with a proposal that some form of teacher- 
participation be incorporated. Their proposal was rejected, but 
the desire for a recognized means of expression was not aban- 
doned. Before his appointment President Churchill was inter- 
ested in the subject; after he was installed in office his interest 
became a purpose, reinforced by that section of the Report of the 
Survey of the New York Schools which recommended "that ap- 
propriate steps be taken to secure the creation of a supervisory 
council to be composed of the City Superintendent, all of the 
district superintendents, and a selected number of directors, 
principals of training schools, principals of high schools, princi- 
pals of elementary schools, and representatives of the teaching 
staff in various types and grades of schools. To this supervisory 
council shall be given general powers and directions with regard 
to programs of study and all other essential matters relating to 
the methods and standards of instruction. ' ' ^ 

The organization along these lines did not meet with favor on 
the part of the Board of Superintendents. Nevertheless, a 
thoughtful study of conditions by the President and certain 
members of the Board of Education culminated in the resolution 
to test a form of teacher-representation in school management. 
The convenient and obvious method of crystallizing this proposal 
into a definite plan was to work through the voluntary organi- 
zations of teachers, forty-five of which were in existence in 
Greater New York. 

How the Council was formed. 

Acting upon the request of the President of the Board of Edu- 
cation, the presidents of the voluntary teachers' associations took 
up the matter of organization of such a council in the spring of 
1913. Their recommendations were sent to the President of the 

1 Report of the Survey of the New York Public Schools. 



34 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Board through a committee consisting of two men and two wom- 
en. There was a public hearing on the matter, after which the 
Committees on By-laws and Legislation of the Board of Educa- 
tion approved the plan for a Teachers' Council in the form in 
which it was presented to the Board. On July 9, 1913, the 
Board officially concurred in the action of the last named com- 
mittee. On October 8th, the Board approved a plan for the elec- 
tion of members of the Teachers' Council submitted by the 
Committees on By-laws and Legislation, and in the following No- 
vember the members of the Council were elected in accordance 
with the plans. The following is the plan of organization as it 
assumed final shape in Constitution and By-laws: 

Plaifi of Organization of the Council. 
1. Name. The organization shall be known as the Teachers' Council. 

II. Function. The function of the council shall be: 

1. Furnishing of information and opinions of the teaching staff 

(principals and teachers) upon questions submitted by the 
Board of Education or by the Board of Superintendents. 

2. Introduction of recommendations concerning problems affect- 

ing the welfare of the schools and of the teaching staff. 
All final decisions shall be left to the Board of Education 
or the Board of Superintendents. 

III. Powers. The Teachers' Council shall be allowed absolute free- 

dom in its debates and deliberations. 

IV. Membership . The Teachers' Council shall be composed of 45 rep- 

resentatives from such voluntary teachers' organizations as 
were in existence March 1, 1913, and from such other organ- 
izations as may thereafter be recognized by the Board of 
Education. 

V. Distribution of Representation. Representation in the Teachers' 
Council shall be distributed as follows: 

1. Secondary Schools (High and Training) 

a. Principal 1 

b. First assistant 1 

c. Men teachers 2 

d. Women teachers 2 

e. Teachers in training schools 1 

Total from Secondary Schools .... 7 



teachers' share in school management 35 

2. Elementary Schools 

a. Principals 

Boroughs 

Manhattan (1 man, 1 woman) 2 

Brooklyn (1 man, 1 woman) 2 

Bronx 1 

Queens 1 

Richmond 1 

Total 7 

b. Assistants to principals or heads of depart- 

ments 4 

c. Teachers of the 7th and 8th grades (2 men, 

2 women) 4 

d. Teachers of the 1st to 6th grades, inclusive 

Boroughs 

•■ Manhattan 3 

Brooklyn 3 

Bronx 2 

Queens 2 

Richmond 1 

Total 11 

e. Kindergarten teachers 1 

f . Shopwork teachers 1 

g. Cooking teachers 1 

h. Additional teachers 1 

Total from Elementary Schools 30 

3. Other public school activities : evening schools, vo- 

cational, trade, continuation, disciplinary 
schools; recreation, sewing, drawing, music, 
physical training, etc 3 

4. Representatives at large elected by the Council ... 5 

Grand Total 45 

VI. Method of Election. The method of election shall be as follows : 

1. Each secondary school teachers' organizatiori which includes 
principals in its membership shall elect two secondary 
school principals as delegates to a conference. The mem- 
bers of this conference . . . shall elect one secondary prin- 
cipal as a member of the Teachers' Council. 



36 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

2. Each teachers' organization which includes elementary school 

principals in its membership shall elect two elementary 
school principals as delegates to a conference. The mem- 
bers of this conference shall . . . elect seven elementary 
school principals as members of the Teachers' Council. 

3. Each teachers' organization which includes teachers of the 

first to the sixth-year classes, inclusive, shall elect three 

delegates to a conference. This conference shall elect 
eleven teachers as members of the Teachers' Council. 

4. In like manner the teachers' organizations concerned shall 

send two delegates to each appropriate conference for the 
election of representatives of all the other groups provided 
for in Article V, except for the election of representatives 
at large. 

5. All the conferences for election shall be held on the same date. 

6. A candidate for the Teachers' Council need not be a delegate 

to a conference nor a member of a voluntary teachers' or- 
ganization, but must be of the rank or grade assigned to the 
conference. 

Other important provisions are, that each member of the Coun- 
cil shall as ''far as possible" represent the viev^s of his constitu- 
ents, and that any group of electors may recall its representa- 
tive by a majority vote of the delegates from that group. It 
is also provided that several standing committees shall be formed 
and each member of the Council shall have a place upon one at 
least of these committees. Amendments may be made in the 
usual manner by a tvro-thirds vote after due notice. The ex- 
penses of the Council for clerical work, stationery, etc., shall be 
borne by the Board of Education. 

The electors meet in joint conference on the second Thursday 
of November, each year, the place of meeting and temporary 
chairman being designated by the Board. Members of the Coun- 
cil are elected by ballot; nominations are made by delegates of 
the same rank as members proposed, but they may be chosen by 
the respective groups of their ov^n rank or by the conference as 
a whole. The results of election are immediately transmitted 
to the Secretary of the Board of Education. 

The By-laws provide that the officers shall be a President, 
Vice-President, a Corresponding Secretary and a Eecording Sec- 
retary. The Standing Committees are as follows: 



teachers' share in school management 37 

standing Committees of the Council. 

1. The Executive Committee, consisting of the President, the Recording 

Secretary (ex officio) and the Chairman of the Standing Com- 
mittees. 

2. Committees on Courses of Study, Syllabuses and Programs. 

3. Committee on School Records and Statistics. 

4. Committee on Truancy and Delinquency. 

5. Committee on Vocational Interests. 

6. Committee on Advancement of Pupils. 

7. Committee on Organization and Administration. 

8. Committee on Evening Schools and Recreation Centers. 

9. Committee on Professional Interests. 

10. Committee on Special Schools and Classes. 

11. Committee on Parents' Associations and Community Needs. 

Apportionment of Council Mem^hers. 

It will be noted that the appointment of members is made 
with reference not only to the rank of the teachers but to the 
difference in the size of school population in the five boroughs 
of Greater New York. Of the forty-five members of the Council, 
eighteen, or about one-third, are men. The chairmen of the 
standing committees about equally divide the sexes. The 
President of the Council in 1914 was an eighth grade teacher, 
now acting-principal of an elementary school, the Vice-President 
a seventh grade teacher of Brooklyn, the Recording Secretary an 
eighth grade teacher in Brooklyn, and the Corresponding Sec- 
retary the principal of an elementary school in Long Island 
City. Not rank but personality was regarded in the elections. 
Membership on the Standing Committees was ''based on the in- 
dividual preferences of members so far as other necessary con- 
siderations would permit, with the two-fold purpose of securing 
the best equipped and the most willing workers upon the re- 
spective committees." 

The activities of the Council during its first year. 
The first meeting of the Council was held in November, 1913 ; 
its actual work began in January, 1914, with the consideration 
of questions submitted by the Board of Education. Eighteen 
meetings were held during the year and more than thirty-five 
questions considered. The source, disposition and status of the 
more important of these questions is stated on pages 38-40. 



38 



TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



tH 



I— ( 

o 

PQ 
Q 

03 

Q 
t— I 

% 
O 

02 

o 

I— I 
El 

m 



O 



CO 






Ps 



5Si 

•to 
§ 

CO 






1 


ew 




xn. 


O 




> 






9 


n3 




;-( 


^ 




CO 


o 




ai 






^ 


p>» 




g 


Xi 




-t^ 






d 


^ 




• r^ 


o 




f-l 


-t^ 




Supe 
abus. 


adop 
on. 






orted 
ducati 


1 


X ^ 


a; 




&H 


o 


PQ 


pa 


^ 


§^ 


§^ 


§^ 


<D S 


(D rj 


Q) !:3 


-M 


_, -tJ 


^, -M 


«0Q 


«0Q 


'^m 


■^cw 


•*^q-l 


-+^cw 


-+J o 


-4J O 


-+J o 


•r-l M 


•i-H 03 


• iH m 




Si 


a g3 


a§ 


a§ 


a§ 


oO 


oO 


oO 






1^ 
O 



O 

pq 



r^ 02 
-l-J I— I 

^ B 

o "^ 



o 



o3 
pi 



O 



O 

pq 






O 

<i> 

02 

o 
Q 



O 






O 



H o 
o ^ 



r/5 ^ 



O 



(M 



02 is 

o ^ 

o tri 

PL, 



CO 



>5 



02 
O) 

a; 

02 

§ 



02 

1—1 

o 



:3 o 

^-^-^ 
a .1-1 

> o 



8 G <i> 

o o <1> 

SL .1-H -M 

-^i « a 

^ S g 

S^H 8 



f§ 



1^ 

03 w U 

•r-l t>. n 

a « s" 
a s-S 

o 



pi 



CH 
O 



n3 

a 
o 

PQ 



O c3 

.C-| «2 J 

•^ (D I— I 

<ii be , 

• i-i oi 

PM <=^S 



SH 
O 



■^ O) 



be 03 

^^ 

gH 

a 5 o 

opq §. 
o <» 

CH ^ 

o o o 

I* .2 
ai 1— I o 



2 fe 
Ph-S 

o 



o 






CH 
O 



n3 

o 

pp 



.a A 

r— I 1-5 

Pk 






^.^ 



d d ;-l 

a o o 



P< 



^ 


s 


fl 


-M 


•2 


^■4-3 


*M m 


Cj 


Xfl -H 


y 


(U CC 


s 


CH « 


o 



o 



xn 

I 



H 



o 
o 



• i-H 
0[2 

O 






05 ^i' 



o 
Q 






TEACHERS SHARE IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 



39 



CO 



"to 



55 
■ss> 



o 

ft 

o 



fl o 

O ^ 
0) o 



s 

o 



> ft 



c3 



O 



^ 2 
O 



g^ O 

o o 

9 02 -^ 

■^ ^ S 

2 bs o 

o o ti '^ 

pq 



o u 



o 



O CO 



CI C CC M 

3 S «2 O . 

.. . « 2 o 



d S ^ 

S3 .1-1 .M 
o 1:^ c3 



2 -U O W <X» 



© 




ft 




02 




f3 m 




o o 




02 












§-^3 




S B 




o cs 




O M 




1— 1 




^i 




A 




"i^ 




u 




f-i '^ 




O) ro 




^•s 




p^ 




Ji 




<o 




©•-I 




© "^ 






& 


1 >^ 





■g 






ca 



I 

ft 

u 

o 

52; 



I 

> s 

l-H 
O) ,—1 

• r-j O 






o 

ft 

o 



i-^ 



° r- «« 

g.2-S 

H CS C 









o 
O 



I 

a 



03 






o 



w^* 



a 

o 



flOQ 



C<J 



r;:^ bjo 

w 

d o3 

fl-i 1^ <^ 

>p^ a 



ft; 

.2'T3 



00 



m 



u 
<o 

t) 

03 

a> 

"^ 
o 

cc 

• I— ( 
03 
P^ 



a> 
u 

!=! 
W 

OQ 

o 

a 
o 



c3 
d 

13 

CO 

o 

03 
O 

M 



a & 

pi 

Cr 03 

O 
O) ^ 

22 &0 



;3<^ 






cs^O 



6 
a> 



00 fl 



O 03 

U 03 

o ;h 



o 
o 

OQ 



"I 



u 

Ph 



o 
o 

I* 



.rH 0! 

Ph H 



40 



TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



OS 



O 

o 

H 
W 

Q 

Q 

C/2 

o 
o 

m 
o 

»— I 
Bh 



<1 

H 
O 









to 






o 

u 
o 



■+J I— t 

o 

rcJ O 

•^ .—I 

o ft 
•4^ CO 

rS O 

Ho 

o a 

^ O 
O 



o 
o 

{2; 




o 
o 

o 

m 

O Jh 

O ci3 

m 2 



(U P-i 



teachers' share in school management 41 

Analysis of this list of topics gives some results shown in the 
subjoined tables. 

Relation of Topics Discussed by New York Teachers' Council in 

THE Year 1913 to 1914 

Topics relating to Number Per cent 

Pupils' interests directly 15 41 

Teachers' interests directly 6 16 

Details of administration , 7 19 

Business of the Council ■ 9 24 

Total 37 100 

Source of Questions Discussed by Council 

Communications from Number 

Board of Education directly 10 

Board of Superintendents through Board of Education 1 

Association of Women Principals through Board of Education 1 

State Commissioner of Education 1 

Committees of the Council 5 

Members of the Council 15 

Teachers or Teachers' Associations 3 

Resolution of Council 1 

Total 37 

Effectiveness of the Council recommendations. 

From the teachers' point of view the fact of paramount im- 
portance in relation to these deliberations is the final disposition 
of the questions discussed. When the question has been sub- 
mitted by the Board of Education to the Council it is a pretty 
sure indication that the Board intends to accept the Council's 
conclusions. The records show that in several instances this has 
been done, especially in matters relating to proposed changes in 
course of study. The course in history made out by the Coun- 
cil's Committee has been accepted by the Board and is in use. 
The Council's report on the trial course in arithmetic was util- 
ized by the Board of Superintendents in revising the syllabus in 
arithmetic. The report of the Council on the rating of teachers 
was referred by the Board of Education to the Board of Super- 
intendents and adopted by that body. In instances where *'no 



42 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

report" is found under the caption ''status" it does not indicate 
that action has not been taken, but that investigation is still pro- 
ceeding. The several Committees of the Council are aware that 
their work is not only requested but needed, to guide the action 
of the authorities. It is needless to state that this knowledge is 
an incentive to their energy. 

General view of the work and influence of the New York 

Teachers' Council. 

The report of its President, Mr. Gross, submitted to the Coun- 
cil in December, 1914, embodies the conclusions of the Council 
and its constituents, the teachers of New York. 
''Ladies and Gentlemen: 

' ' Following the organization of the Council in December, 1913, 
the Board of Education submitted to it for consideration a num- 
ber of the most important problems affecting school government 
and instruction. In addition to these, the Council of its own 
initiative submitted by resolution or report a series of recom- 
mendations concerning schools and teachers. 

"The amount of labor expended upon these problems, the zeal 
and interest enlisted in their solution, and the value of the de- 
ductions and recommendations constitute a notable achievement. 

"To you belongs the credit of being the means by which, in 
one short year (to quote the report of the President of the Board 
of Education) "the desire to foster a spirit of dignity and re- 
sponsibility in the teaching staff by employing its experience and 
judgment in the formulation of school policies has been realized 
to a gratifying degree," and in pursuing your investigations 
you have ' ' summed up recommendations with a completeness and 
clarity which give the Board of Education in convenient form 
a more satisfactory basis for judgment than has ever before 
been obtainable in reference to these questions. "... 

"The Council has justified the purpose in founding it, of giv- 
ing concrete expression to ideas long nurtured in the minds of 
many who sought a means of voluntary (as supplementing the 
necessary official) cooperation between the administrative heads 
of the greatest public school system in the world and the great 
army of teachers engaged in it. 



teachers' share in school management 43 

'* Yours is a just claim to the successful demonstration of this 
experiment and yours the title of pioneers in a great educational 
movement which is destined to be followed wherever progress 
and democracy are sought in the development of an educational 
system. 

''Too much praise can hardly be given your Committees for 
the admirable work they have done in searching for data, tabu- 
lating returns, formulating opinions and drafting their re- 
ports. . . . 

"That your Committees served you faithfully and efficiently 
was abundantly proven by the respect, interest and approval 
with which their reports were received and considered by the 
Council, by the administration and by the school public. It is 
safe to say that these reports have been largely responsible for 
making the current year a notable one for the keenest and most 
widespread discussion of school problems. . . . 

"That the progress of certain of your recommendations was 
slow after leaving your hands is not to be wondered at, nor dis- 
paraged when fair consideration is given to the extent and di- 
versity of the interests involved in some of them, the difficulties 
in the way of preparatory legislation or amendment needed by 
others, and the responsibility for final action which rests solely 
upon the administrative department. 

"The general faith in the sincerity and disinterestedness of 
the Council as a whole has been manifested in a number of ways 
but most strikingly, perhaps, in the generous response of the 
teaching body to conferences, circulars, and hearings, and in the 
great gathering of delegates from all parts of the city and from 
all ranks and grades, to attend the two general conventions for 
the election of members of the Council which have thus far been 
held. 

' ' The school system of New York is a vast and complex educa- 
tional machine, far too great for any one individual to manage 
or to successfully study and solve all the interests, issues and re- 
quirements involved in its structure. . . . 

"Let us devote sufficient time and observation to the study of 
the part we claim to be weak, let us compare notes with others 
whose judgment may be as good and perhaps better than ours 



44 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

because of greater experience (and therefore longer observation). 
If all who are interested could approach the subject of improv- 
ing the schools in this spirit, reforms would be sure and lasting, 
not temporary and spasmodic as so many have been in the past ; 
and the labor of the Council and of the whole directorate would 
be much lightened. . . ^ 

*'In conclusion your Chairman extends his cordial acknowl- 
edgment and appreciation for the whole-souled cooperation of 
every member of the Council in upholding its dignity in all its 
proceedings, in the earnest and concerted effort to demonstrate 
its usefulness, and in the unstinted devotion of time, energy, and 
personal interest in the achievement of its fine purpose." 

General consideration of the New York Teachers^ Council. 

Legal status and function. — The Teachers' Council was estab- 
lished by the New York Board of Education; its legal status, 
therefore, is as definite as that of the local School Boards, or of 
the Board of Superintendents, since it, as they do, derives its 
authority from and reports directly to the Board. ^ Its 
function is comparable to that of a Congressional com- 
mittee to which are referred questions requiring the ac- 
cumulation of data and the opinion of special experience 
before they can be put into a form capable of profitable dis- 
cussion in the larger legislative body. It is contended by the 
majority of school boards that have taken account of the matter 
at all that the function of such a Council is now adequately exer- 
cised by the supervising officers and expert directors already in 
their service. These, it is claimed, are in close touch with the 
conduct of the schools, are in a position to make needed investi- 
gations and on their basis to bring recommendations to the 
Board. It is evident that whatever may have been the convic- 
tion of the supervisory officials in New York on this question, 
the Board of Education and the teaching body are in agreement 
as to the fallacy of this conclusion. They claim that superintend- 
ents of whatever rank cannot, in a large city school system, be 
familiar with the actual working of school methods or the con- 

1 The legal status of the Council is definite, but since no provision for 
it is made in the City Charter, it is not necessarily permanent. 



teachers' share in school management 45 

Crete effect of certain policies. They must and do take their 
opinions from brief visits to individual schools, or from the few 
principals and teachers whom exigencies of time, space, and 
multifarious duties permit them to interview. The By-laws of 
the New York Board of Education assign in twenty-five different 
items a variety of duties to the District Superintendents, among 
which are a general inspection of each school twice a year and 
the visitation of ''every class of such schools as often as practi- 
cable." The last regulation is largely to give opportunity for 
judgment on the ability of the teacher. That these hasty visits 
to the class-room give the Superintendent little knowledge of the 
teacher's real caliber and afford no time for discussions of the 
important conditions of the work is the contention of all teachers 
in large cities. This does not necessarily militate against the 
practices of the Superintendent; it rather indicates that in the 
New York schools, and by inference in large systems elsewhere, 
the most highly systematized administration cannot provide for 
adequate information on many important matters without em- 
ploying the first-hand knowledge of the teaching body to whose 
direction these matters are entrusted. 

It is the function, then, of the Teachers' Council to get to- 
gether information, experience and opinions on certain questions ; 
to discuss the resulting reports fully ; and finally to make the rec- 
ommendations which are transmitted to the Board. The Coun- 
cil cannot legislate ; it is advisory only, but its advice is like that 
of a physician, so expert that it spells large risk to disregard it. 
As a matter of fact up to the present the New York Board of 
Education has never disregarded the recommendations of the 
Council. With the ratification of the Board of Superintendents 
these recommendations have been in several cases adopted and 
have become school regulations; in other cases they have been 
referred to Board Committees or back to Council Committees, 
for further study. But whatever the disposition made of them 
the Council recommendations have been received with respect 
and considered with deliberation. 

Methods of procedure. — The advisory function of the Council 
is usually exercised upon questions referred to it by the Board 



46 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

of Education; — questions which may have arisen in the Board, 
or which have been submitted to it by the Board of Superin- 
tendents. An example of the first class is the question of a plan 
for reducing part-time classes. The method of procedure on 
the part of the Council was as follows: The question was 
brought to its Executive Committee on January 16, and by them 
assigned to the Committee on the Advancement of Pupils. 
After careful and extended inquiry by means of hearings 
and questionnaires sent to schools and teachers, this Commit- 
tee presented its report to the Executive Committee March 10th ; 
on April 2nd the report was read before the Council, was adopted 
and sent to the Board of Education; the Board referred the re- 
port back to the President of the Council for appropriate action ; 
the President appointed a Special Committee on Part-time; this 
Committee is still working at the subject. 

The part-time question has been for years a fruitful bone of 
contention, a source of discontent to parents, teachers and chil- 
dren. If the teachers can relieve the situation by their investi- 
gations and recommendations they will have conferred a real 
service to the community ; if their best invention cannot do this, 
it is certain they will themselves have more patience to endure 
conditions which cannot at present be altered.^ 

Of the second class is the question of deductions from teachers' 
salaries for absence during days of service, a question brought 
by the Board of Superintendents before the Board of Education 
and by that body referred to the Teachers' Council. It was as- 
signed to the Committee on Professional Interests, whose report 
was brought before the Executive Committee October 20th; was 
presented to the Council November 13th, and after discussion 
referred back to the Committee on Professional Interests for fur- 
ther consideration. 

In these instances, as in all important questions, the action 
of the Council has been marked by a painstaking deliberation. 
Its conclusions must therefore be regarded as an invaluable aid 
to the shaping of administrative policy along certain lines. 

Matters suitable and unsuitable for the CounciVs considera- 
tion. — As has been shown in the analysis of the Council's dis- 

1 See Appendix A. 4. — Report of the Committee on Part-Time. 



teachers' shaee in school management 47 

eussions for 1913-14, the main subjects of deliberation were those 
related to the content and application of the school course, the 
methods of internal school management, and the status of teach- 
ers. On a multitude of other matters chiefly administrative, the 
Council has not been, and from any practical business point of 
view, should not be, consulted. Conviction on this point, as well 
as an enlarged view of the complex details of the business of a 
large school system must seize the mind of any plain citizen as 
well as of the teacher who examines the Report on the "Organi- 
zation of the Board of Education and Its Committees." In this 
Report Director Shiels of the Division of Reference and Re- 
search gives a list of items brought for consideration or confirma- 
tion before the New York Board of Education from August 2nd 
to December 23rd, 1914. The total number of items was 1,050, 
each of which required for a space of time the attention of the 
Board, however brief and perfunctory that attention may have 
been. Dr. Shiels' enumeration is intended to show that many 
of these matters should, without reference to the Board, be ad- 
justed by heads of bureaus or other officers. The study of his 
analysis is, however, pertinent to our present discussion. 
Dr. Shiels classifies the 1,050 items as below : 

Class Number 

Legislative 

General 46 

Financial 67 

113 
Inspectorial 19 

Administrative 

Financial 92 

Building and Supplies 162 

School Organization 79 

School Conduct 37 

Teaching and Supervising Staff 297 

Other Employees 227 

Miscellaneous 24 

918 



Total 1,050 



48 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Under the head of ''Legislation" we find twenty-five items 
concerned with amending by-laws; of these, one, which was re- 
ferred to the Teachers' Council, had to do with the reductions 
of salary for a teacher's absence. In several other cases, recom- 
mendations from the Council were considered; as those relat- 
ing to change in course of study, naming of schools, etc. 

Under the head "Inspectorial" the items had to do with the 
appointment and assignment of the officers of the Board as Dis- 
trict Superintendents, physicians, etc. It is, of course, self-evi- 
dent that under any existing school organization these matters 
should not fittingly come before a Teachers' Council chosen from 
a body of employees unauthorized to appoint the supervisory 
force. 

The largest number of items is found under the various divi- 
sions of "Administrative Matters." Under this division are 
questions of finance relating mainly to appropriations and ex- 
penditures, routine matters brought before the Board from the 
appropriate Committees for final action. They are, of course, 
entirely unsuitable for Council consideration. The same must 
be said of the majority of the items under "Buildings and Sup- 
plies," though one or two, as for example the recommendation 
of the substitution of chemically prepared dusters for the 
ubiquitous feather-duster, might well have been stamped with 
the approval of the Teachers' Council. On the whole, however, 
these are items of a technical character as to which the teachers 
as a whole have no experience. 

With the two hundred and twenty-seven items relating to the 
non-teaching employees of the Board the Council also could 
have no concern. This is true also of the "Miscellaneous" 
group which includes communications, reports, and resolutions 
on matters of extraordinary character, usually from the City 
Departments. 

There remains three important classes of items which will cer- 
tainly raise special interest in the minds of teachers ready to 
' ' take a hand ' ' in school planning. These are ' ' school organiza- 
tion," "school conduct," and "teaching and organizing staff." 

A close examination of the list of items under "school organi- 
zation" makes it clear, however, that the actions indicated can 



teachers' share in school management 49 

be undertaken only by those who are familiar with not only the 
whole educational field, but with the particular demands of cer- 
tain districts, of special classes in the community, and finally 
with the available resources, personal and financial, of the ad- 
ministration. The Council is not competent, for instance, to 
select a school in which shorthand shall be taught, or to organize 
eleven new schools and twenty annexes, or to judge the ex- 
pediency of organizing classes at infant asylums, department 
stores, etc. In short, the great majority of these items have been 
properly considered by special committees after investigations 
by experts who had the time and knowledge teachers do not 
possess. The rational teacher, who is, after all, in the great 
majority, would be as averse to deciding these matters as the 
ordinary passenger to directing a tram-car. 

*' School Conduct" heads another class of items promising a 
field for teacher-advice. But examination proves that here also 
recommendations should come from officials familiar with par- 
ticular school and community conditions. A full list of items 
under this head will be illustrative of the latter point. 

Matters on School Conduct Brought Before the Board of Education. 

1. Granting permission to school organizations. 

a. To hold public entertainments in school buildings. 

b. To City College to conduct free extension centers for 

teachers in school buildings. 

c. To a Mothers' Club to sell tickets for an entertain- 

ment. 

d. To a principal to collect money for milk sold in 

school. 

2. Considering propositions to open certain buildings in the 

afternoons and evenings as recreation centers for teach- 
ers.' 

3. Establishing lunch service in the schools. 

The last proposition might fitly be discussed by the Council; 
the others relate to the use of public property and can only be 
decided by the custodians of that property, namely, the School 
Board or its deputed representative. 



50 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

And finally comes the significant heading ^'Teaching and Su- 
pervising Staff." But after all, the items listed here are nearly 
all on the routine calendar and involve no questions of general 
significance so far as the status or interests of teachers are con- 
cerned. The list of items is given below. 

Items Eei^ting to Teaching and Supervising Staff Brought Before 

THE Board of Education: 

Cases Number of Items 

Transferring teachers and principals 29 

Appointing from eligible lists 68 

Special assignments to give instruction; make vocational sur- 
vey, special clerical work, etc 12 

Assigning teachers in charge 6 

Granting leave of absence 50 

Reporting deaths or resignations 8 

Reporting deaths of retired teachers 7 

Retiring teachers 12 

Salaries 3 

Submitting names of teachers who have been married 7 

Submitting names of persons licensed to teach 9 

Submitting names to be added to eligible lists 9 

Preferring charges against teachers 6 

Shall an advisory body of teachers make recommendations as 
to the assignment, status and recruiting of the teaching force? 
It seems clear that such a body may properly discuss certain 
general principles in their relation to these matters, but to rec- 
ommend action in individual cases would be beyond question 
perilous to the best interests of those concerned. Rebellion would 
instantly arise were teachers to find their positions and prospects 
manipulated by a committee of their fellows. 

To sum up, then, of these 1,050 items of school policy and busi- 
ness brought before the Board of Education in the space of nine 
months, not more than half a dozen altogether represented sub- 
jects suitable for Council discussion. On the other hand, the 
thirty-seven topics listed by the Secretary of the Council were 
suitable ; first, because without availing themselves of the knowl- 
edge and experience of the teachers, the supreme school au- 
thority could not rightly form its judgment; secondly, because 
^certain questions arising on the initiation of the Councils' mem- 



TEACHERS SHARE IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 51 

bers or Committees, could have reached open-air discussion 
through no other medium. 

Imperfections and disadvantages of the New York Council. 

Difficulty of making the Council truly representative. — The 
very first question brought before the Council sitting in Commit- 
tee of the whole was a communication from the teachers of special 
branches showing dissatisfaction with the plan proposed for 
their representation in the Council. Although the high schools 
have not asked for larger representation inquiry discloses among 
a number of high school teachers the conviction that propositions 
affecting the high school matters are better kept out of the Coun- 
cil, because the high school representatives will be ' ' voted down ' ' 
by numbers. To quote the head of a high school department, 
*'We have had able members in the Council. They tell us that 
any purely high school question had better not be submitted to 
the Council as the high school representation is relatively so small 
that in a vote it is simply swamped. Moreover, the broadest- 
minded representative of a grammar school is apt to misunder- 
stand a high school problem. Unfortunately the elementary 
school people are not always broad-minded. We believe that 
there should be opportunity to have high school questions con- 
sidered by high school representatives whose findings should be 
respected. At present, high school questions are carefully kept 
away from the Council and are brought before the Superintend- 
ents and the Committees of the Board of Education in some other 



J > 



way. 

In connection with this statement it may be well to give here 
the actual make-up of the Council : 

Proportional Representation in the New York Teachers' Council 

Number of Per Cent of 
Secondary Schools {High and Training) Eepresentatives Membership 

Principals 1 

First assistant ^ 1 

Men teachers 2 

Women teachers 2 

Teacher in training school 1 

"~" 7 15.6 

1 Means Head of Department. 



52 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Number of Per Cent of 
Elementary Schools Bepresentatives Membership 

Principals 7 

Assistants to Principals or Heads of De- 
partments 4 

Teachers of Tth and 8th years 4 

Teachers of 1st to 6th years 11 

Kindergarten teacher 1 

~" 27 60.0 

Special teachers 

Shop work 1 

Domestic science 1 

Additional teacher 1 

"^3 6.7 

Evening schools or recreation centers 3 3 6.7 

Bepresentatives at large 5 5 11.0 



45 100.0 

The numerical representation certainly must have been diffi- 
cult to adjust. We have no data to determine whether it was 
based on relative numbers in the classes of school population or 
of the teachers in various ranks, probably the latter. If either 
be the case the high school teachers have been generously consid- 
ered, since the high school attendance is only a little over 6 per 
cent of the whole, while the high school teachers, who form about 
11 per cent of the whole teaching body are more than 15 per cent 
in the Council. Their distinct class consciousness is evinced by 
the remarks just quoted, an additional proof of the regrettable 
gap between the interests of the elementary school and the high 
school. Perhaps the Council may do a great service in a back- 
handed way by bringing the fact of this chasm into prominence. 
The need of a bridge-over is well illustrated by the remark of a 
Boston high school teacher of long experience, who replied with 
pronounced indifference in answer to some query about condi- 
tions in the elementary schools: 

"I do not know at all. It is so long since I had anything to 
do with the elementary schools. I know nothing about them.'* 



teachers' share in school management 53 

This teacher would know more were she a member of a 
Council. 

The present indifference of a large proportion of the teach- 
ing body to the new movement. — This indifference as to the value 
and activities of the Council on the part of many teachers is un- 
doubted. Time and effort will doubtless largely minimize it. 
Still there will alwaj^s be in a large school system teachers who 
are indifferent to any sort of movement looking to the general 
improvement of the schools. Some of these will be spasmodi- 
cally interested in agitations bearing on their own status or 
benefit, but they are the commercially minded who hang, a chok- 
ing, dead weight, about the neck of intelligent endeavor. An- 
other class of indifferents is made up of the elder war-worn prin- 
cipals and teachers who have seen the new burdens of responsi- 
bility come with the passing years, most of them to stay. Their 
central ambition is to hold on desperately and stolidly till they 
can rest from their labors with a pension, hoping that their 
works will not follow them. 

Other risks, disabilities, dangers, benefits, and disadvantages 
will doubtless be brought into prominence with the lapses of 
time. The Council is yet new. 

Some opinions ahout the New York Teachers' Council. 

The Principal of an elementary school for all grades : 
**I have paid but little attention to the work of the Teachers' 
Council or its special advantages. Several circulars have been 
sent me, to which I have replied as requested. You might write 
to the Secretary of the Teachers' Council. I don't know who 
the Secretary is, but it would probably reach him or her. I an- 
ticipate retirement in the near future." 

A group of young and active teachers in a high school : 
' ' We are all rather absorbed in the strenuous life we have un- 
dertaken. Among those who have definite knowledge of the 
Council there is discovered no tendency to discount the Council 
or its work. In the fall we all voted on two questions presented 
to us by the Council and have since then seen our pretty nearly 
unanimous opinion on one of them embodied in a Report to the 



54 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Board of Education. We are surfeited with questionnaires, but 
these are treated with much respect. Those who know the 
Council's work best speak highly of the Council and its work." 

The head of an English department in a large high school: 

''The Council fills a long-felt want, has apparently a fairly 
representative membership, is certainly very faithful (its mem- 
bership is badly overworked, in fact) and has been influential 
with the Board of Education, I judge. I think it is a step in 
the right direction. At present it cannot be more than an ad- 
visory body. Most of its activities, as I understand the matter, 
have been called out by questions referred to it by President 
Churchill and the Board of Education. I should like to see it 
have opportunity to originate more suggestions or to take up 
questions proposed by the schools and the teachers. I think it 
has this power and has exercised it in a limited degree. In some 
way individual members should have less work to do. Whether 
the conditions call for a larger membership or a relief from some 
school duty, I do not know. It is currently believed that the 
individual members are too heavily weighted." 

An eighth grade teacher (man) : 

''That the teachers' associations of the public schools of this 
city recognize the need and the importance of a Teachers' Coun- 
cil was evident at the Electoral Convention held at the Dewitt 
Clinton High School on November 12th, 1914. Forty associa- 
tions had elected about four hundred delegates to take part in 
the election of the members of the Council whose terms expire 
in 1914." 

A teachers' organization (opinion as reported) : 

"The method of obtaining representation has aroused dis- 
satisfaction. It is contended that delegates from individual 
schools should be chosen for the electoral assembly, rather than 
from the teachers' organizations, thus insuring more adequate lo- 
cal representation. Although the great number of school units 
would offer difficulties in working this, it is undoubtedly the 
fairer method. The attitude of this organization is on the whole 
unfriendly to the Council." 

The City Superintendent: 

"A principal states that in a recent conversation with Dr. 



teachers' share in school management 55 

Maxwell, the latter spoke favorably of the Council and said that 
the Council and some other organization of the teachers had pre- 
sented some valuable suggestions and information to the educa- 
tional authorities. He commented favorably on the great indus- 
try of the Council's Committees." 

The President of the Board of Education: 

''When you consider the great numbers of teachers in the 
schools and the sometimes over-animated discussions that have 
occurred in educational circles in past years, you must commend 
the spirit with which this Council has come together. If the 
feeling of responsibility for the highest form of service should 
at any time be weak in this Council, if the frailty of human nature 
should show itself in bickering or petty personal ambitions, we 
shall find reason for it in a misguided policy of school administra- 
tion which has too long centered responsibility and initiation in 
too narrow a circle at the top. The Teachers' Council will not, 
I feel sure, disappoint the expectations you entertain for it. If 
there is any cynicism about its success in this city I believe it is 
due to an attitude toward teachers which has tended to destroy 
and atrophy the natural instinct for discovery and improvement 
that belongs to every normal mind that is trying to do work in- 
telligently. The success of the Teachers' Council will depend 
to an equal degree upon us. Just as soon as that organization 
finds itself entrusted with important questions; just as soon as 
it finds its conclusions received with intent to put every recom- 
mendation possible into practice, the dignity of contributing 
something more than academic discussion will give tone and in- 
spiration to the Council. ' ' ^ 

Note. — A list of certain Reports made by the New York Teachers' 
Council, 1914, will be found in Appendix A, p. 73. 

New York and Chicago Teachers' Councils Compared. 

1. SIMILARITIES. 

a. Legal status. 

Although the New York Council was formed by direct request 
of the President of the Board, and the Chicago Councils through 

1 Report of the President to the Board of Education, New York City, 
1914. 



56 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

accession of the Board to a request from the Superintendent of 
Schools, both have official place in the school system, both hold 
their meetings in official headquarters, and in both cases inci- 
dental expenses are met from the general school fund. 

h. Basis of representation. 

In Chicago the groups of teachers electing delegates to the 
General Council are designated by rank or occupation, while in 
New York they are Associations or Leagues. The constituency 
is in both cities practically the same and includes the whole teach- 
ing body. It also provides in both cases for local representation 
in the delegates chosen, recognizing that no discussion of school 
problems in a large city with its diverse elements of population 
could be intelligent without the knowledge of local conditions. 

2. DIFFERENCES. 

a. Relation to the officers of administration. 

In New York the Board of Superintendents regard the Teach- 
ers' Council with no active and perhaps no positive hostility, 
but they remain apparently unconvinced of the necessity or pru- 
dence of its existence. That it has accomplished valuable work 
is admitted, but it is claimed that this work could be accomplished 
through the Administration's Bureaus and Departments. The 
opportunity for the teaching force to express its views unreserv- 
edly and to propose measures is considered a doubtful advantage. 

Just the opposite is the case in Chicago. The real attitude of 
the Board of Education it is difficult to know further than that 
it has lent its support without cavil to the Superintendent 's plan, 
but the supervisory officers and the prominent educational direc- 
tors in Chicago are apparently cordially supporting the Councils. 
One of the New York Associate Superintendents, who made a 
trip to the West December last, reports that in Chicago he found 
* ' the general policy of utilizing the brains of teachers for the im- 
provement and continued adaptability of the school system to 
the requirements of life." He quotes at length from the prin- 
cipal of the Chicago Normal Training School, who asserts that 
the faculty of that institution actively share with the City Super- 
intendent of Schools' conviction that ''the time is ripe for the re- 



TEACHERS SHARE IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 57 

versal of old-time school management from its habit of central- 
ized thinking, planning and ruling, conviction of the wisdom of 
the substitution of teachers' discovery, recommendation and par- 
ticipation in a process that requires a generous amount of pa- 
tience, diplomacy, self-suppression, and temporary acceptance, 
sometimes, of plans not quite so good as the people way up at 
the top might make. You could not watch and talk with Chicago 
teachers without realizing that one enthusiastically working out 
a second-rate plan of her own is usually benefiting the children 
a great deal more than one who is using a first-rate plan that 
has been forced on her too arbitrarily. To get that enthusiasm 
which accompanies her own inventions the management of the 
Chicago school system promotes the Council idea." 

h. Inclusion of Chicago supervisory officers. 

Another marked difference, and one which perhaps has to do 
with the general support of the Council idea by the management, 
is the inclusion of supervisory olBficers in the Chicago Council. 
Three of the Group Councils are made up of Assistant and Dis- 
trict Superintendents, three of the members of the faculty of 
the Normal College, one of the supervisors of special branches. 
Each of these groups has a representative on the General Coun- 
cil. The New York Council has no representation from the ad- 
ministrative circles and at the present writing desires none. The 
reason seems to be a conviction on the part of the teaching body 
that it is the aim of New York administration on the whole to 
dominate rather than to cooperate. This feeling, more or less 
strongly marked, is pretty generally discoverable among the teach- 
ers of any system that is effectively organized. The presence of 
the supervisory officers does not appear to have modified the 
freedom of debate in Chicago. 

c. Method of considering questions. 

The method of consideration of questions proposed is radically 
different. The Chicago Council is summoned to report and to 
discuss opinions; the New York Council meets to formulate rec- 
ommendations. The opinions of the Chicago Council are put 
into the shape of recommendations by the City Superintendent, 



58 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

if she approves them. The recommendations of the New York 
Council are brought before the Board of Education or the Board 
of Superintendents, which bodies are bound to take some action 
upon them. 

The New York Council 's responsibility in forming recommend- 
ations that may be practically adopted as parts of administrative 
policy entails the use of Committees to give the requisite time to 
collecting data on the questions in hand. The fact that these 
committees closely duplicate in most cases the fields covered by 
the Committees of the Board of Education militates in no degree 
against the value of their work. The viewpoint is different; the 
available sources of data are different, and, as a result, a measure 
considered by the New York Council put into the form of recom- 
mendation and again referred by the Board of Education to its 
own Committee has been tried by all the tests that various points 
of attack can furnish. A case in point is the recent adoption of 
a revised course in arithmetic for the elementary schools, embody- 
ing several of the recommendations made by the New York Teach- 
ers' Council, — ^but not all. The report of the Council was thor- 
oughly discussed by the Board of Superintendents and certain 
suggestions as to furnishing teachers type problems and type 
solutions for each grade were rejected on the ground that if this 
were done *'it would deprive a teacher of all initiative." The 
Board of Education has now published the arithmetic syllabus 
as a bulletin of the Teachers' Council. 



CHAPTER in 

TEACHERS' CLUBS AS FACTORS IN SCHOOL AD- 
MINISTRATION 

The preceding chapters have cited instances of the utilization 
when occasion demanded of voluntary teachers' organizations in 
the formation of committees or councils of teachers. The grow- 
ing movement toward the formation of these societies, especially 
in large school systems, is proof that the impulse of self-expres- 
sion in a body of workers will, if blocked in one direction, inevit- 
ably find another. A writer on modem educational movements 
observes that a complete study of the voluntary teachers' organi- 
zations of the United States would be a valuable contribution to 
social study, ' ' but, ' ' he adds, ' ' it would be next to impossible to 
collect the necessary data." We heartily agree on both points. 

The data collected shows, however, that these organizations 
in towns and cities fall into different types as affected by local 
conditions, the size of the school system or the pressure of a par- 
ticular emergency. The simplest though apparently least com- 
mon type of organization is the club formed for social purposes 
merely. For teachers to flock by themselves with this object in 
view would seem on first consideration unwise, since in their 
calling there is peculiar need to modify the too dominant pro- 
fessional point of view through relations that foster a stronger 
community consciousness. But it must be remembered that in 
many towns and smaller cities the schools are largely manned by 
teachers from outside, who have few or no local connections and 
for whom the teachers' club offers opportunity for social inter- 
course with townspeople as well as fellow-teachers. 

The Teachers' Club of Montclair, New Jersey, may be cited 
as an instance of this type. The excellent character of the 
schools, both public and private, in this large suburban town has 
attracted a number of teachers from other localities. Many of 



60 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

them, including men, married and single, have few social con- 
nections in the community. By a common impulse about two 
years ago, these teachers formed themselves into a club, obtained 
a club house, and through its means proceeded to satisfy their 
social and intellectual longings. The purposes of the club as 
stated are ''to provide a common home for its members and to 
promote their social welfare.'' Membership is open to persons 
of either sex engaged in educational work in Montclair, including 
teachers in private schools. Wives or husbands of active mem- 
bers may be associate members. The usual social activities 
formal and informal take place, but in addition outside speakers 
have been invited, whose themes have been of a generally cultural 
character. The club has so far held no discussions, and has in- 
vited no speakers on educational topics. It is clear that an in- 
clusive, united organization of this sort could promptly form 
plans looking to participation in school management should con- 
viction of its need arise. It is equally clear that in so small a 
body of teachers in close communication with a liberal adminis- 
tration that need is not likely to be felt. 

A tendency to aggregate in groups defined by rank or oc- 
cupation is marked in the cities where teachers are counted by 
hundreds or thousands. In the earlier stages of the movement 
the majority of these associations asserted, and for the most part 
believed their main object to be professional stimulus and im- 
provement. But with the growth of city school systems, entail- 
ing in administrative methods changes already discussed, the 
teachers' clubs feel the inevitable impulse toward assertion of 
interests related to the teachers' personal status and welfare. 
This impulse accounts for the formation of large, inclusive organ- 
izations. 

On the other hand, with the increased emphasis laid on method 
and with the multiplication of "special" subjects, has come the 
tendency toward subdivision of the teacher-groups on the basis 
of rank, sex, special subjects or locality. A comparison of the 
lists of teachers' associations in our large cities throws sugges- 
tive light both on the similarities of impulse and the character 
of local lines of demarcation. The lists for St. Louis, Newark, 



TEACHERS^ ASSOCIATIONS 61 

N. J., Boston and New York will be found in the Appendix.^ 
It would be not only interesting but pertinent to discuss in 
detail the history and activities of several of these city clubs ; 
limitations of space will, however, permit the selection of only 
a few as illustrating special types. 

A Cliih Devoted both iti name and in fact to Professional In- 
terests is the Association of High School Teachers of English of 
New York City. — The study of this club makes it evident that 
even where the avowed object of an organization is ''entirely 
professional," its special questions may be treated in a broad 
and illuminating manner, sure to affect the general policy. The 
club numbers three hundred members, "but in addition," 
writes the Secretary, ''there were brought in to assist in special 
discussion last year forty teachers of English from the ele- 
mentary schools, who were well represented in the eighty 
members making up our working committees. They did us 
good, and we did them good." One of the topics of this joint 
discussion was the "Articulation of English between the Gram- 
mar and High School, ' ' a theme constantly included among those 
questions of broader policy as yet unsatisfactorily determined by 
official regulation. This club is a notable exception which proves 
the rule laid down by a writer who asserts, "As yet the high 
schools, far from appreciating the problems of the elementary 
schools, scarcely know that such problems exist. They deal with 
their own pupils and courses as though the former had no past 
and the latter no foundations, seemingly oblivious to the fact 
that the problems of the high schools are bound up with those 
of the elementary schools and cannot be solved except as those 
of the primary and grammar schools are settled. The attitude 
and work of this club are rendering effective aid to the admin- 
istration in relation to a difficult situation. 

The influence of the larger organizations is occasionally 
greatly extended by the publication of a bulletin or news sheet, 
edited by the teachers. Some of these publications have gained 
a national reputation. A paper, for instance, is published by 

1 See Appendix B, pages 73 and 74. 



62 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

The Pittsburgh Teachers' Association, which was organized in 
1904 by a few advanced teachers. Its aims as defined in its con- 
stitution are ' ' to promote the welfare of the common schools, and 
to improve the character of the work therein ; to cultivate a spirit 
of sympathy and good will among the teachers, and to create in 
the community a deeper sense of the dignity of the teachers' pro- 
fession and the importance of the aims they represent." The 
association has grown in numbers and now includes a large ma- 
jority of the teachers. A few years ago, during a period when 
Pittsburgh school and civic conditions were chaotic and corrupt, 
these teachers held not only firmly but hopefully to the aims of 
their organization and by supporting the movement for an entire 
reorganization of the Pennsylvania school system, rendered re- 
markable service to their community. Their organ, the Pitts- 
burgh School Bulletin, discussed in its lively and impartial pages 
the vices of the old ' ' system, ' ' the virtue of some of its elements, 
the methods of reform, and the motives of the reform's opposers, 
always with as little acrimony as fear. At great personal risk, 
through a most trying period these teachers maintained both in 
their meetings and their press the rights of the children. Their 
firmness, patience, breadth of view and temperance of expression 
gave heart and inspiration to the efforts at reform. Their re- 
ward came in the revision of the state laws which delivered Pitts- 
burgh from an outworn and corrupted school system. Under 
the new order they manifest the same spirit, one rare indeed 
among organizations of any sort. These Pittsburgh teachers 
have sufficient reason to work for their material interests, and do 
so when it is proper. But these have never been put first. 

The Boston Teachers' Club is an association including about 
fifteen hundred women of all grades and ranks. The activities 
of the club center in a roomy club house on Beacon Hill; 
they are largely in line with those of other large clubs, social, cul- 
tural, recreational. Local and general school movements with a 
proper central regard to Boston are aptly presented in the Bos- 
ton Teachers' News Letter, the official organ of the club; it 
strongly advocates, for instance, some form of teacher-participa- 
tion in school planning. An important piece of legislative work 



teachers' associations 63 

for whicli the Teachers' Club is largely responsible was the effort 
to establish a proper pension system for teachers, and to hold the 
pension fund intact and solvent. 

This matter of pensions, still in a condition far from satis- 
factory, will continue to engage the active attention of teachers, 
not only in Boston. It is one of the material interests that has 
drawn into close connection large bodies of teachers. 

Such a body, of which the avowed basis of organization is self- 
protection, is the Boston Elementary Teachers' Cluh, formed in 
1910, at the beginning of the successful campaign for increased 
salaries for elementary teachers. It has been chiefly active in 
its efforts to protect its members in the matter of salaries and 
pensions; its legislative work to this end has been carried on 
with vigor, intelligence and skill, and has aroused a widespread 
support in the general community. The Club was responsible 
for securing, after a brilliant campaign, an increase of salary for 
elementary school teachers, and has also cooperated effectively 
with the Boston Teachers' Cluh in its campaign for the Teach- 
ers' Pension Bill. The Club has an Advisory Board composed 
of a representative from every school district in the city, which 
meets each month with the President. Its Conference Com- 
mittee appears as occasion warrants before the School Com- 
mittee, and defends its own requests or recommendations, which, 
if not always acceded to, are received with consideration. 

The most notable example of a successful association formed 
on the basis of a material interest is the Interhorough Associa- 
tion of Women Teachers of New York City. The history of 
this organization and its activities is now national property. 
Its one aim was the legal establishment of the "equal pay 
for equal work" principle in the New York School System. 
The former inequalities between the pay of men and women 
in the same positions are strikingly brought out by Miss 
Grace Strachan, District Superintendent in the Borough of 
Brooklyn in an address given before the National Education 
Association, 1913. Under the impetus of strong leadership 
the whole force of women employed by the New York Board 
of Education was united in this attempt, attaining their ob- 
ject only after long years of persistent effort. Unable to 



64 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

convince the administration of the expediency of the measure, 
they finally and with success appealed to the Legislature at Al- 
bany. It is reported that the votes of certain members of the 
Legislature were secured by methods counted discreditable in any 
political activity, and surely not endorsed by the honorable lead- 
ers of the campaign. But it must be remembered that there 
were here 15,000 women fighting not indeed for bread, but for a 
share of the butter their brothers were able to enjoy. The suc- 
cess of the movement is still lamented by the New York School 
Administration since its effect was not only to raise the sal- 
aries of the women but to lower those of the men. Especially 
was the latter the case in the elementary schools, where the num- 
ber of men teachers has been much reduced since the rule took 
effect. We can but speculate as to what would be the outcome 
were a question of this sort, involving the material interests of 
a large class of teachers, brought before a representative Teach- 
ers' Council. Would open discussion be blocked? Or would 
it be encouraged? 

One important principle brought out by this campaign is the 
right of teachers' organizations to appear before the State Legis- 
lature by delegation or by counsel. The right has been exercised 
very recently by the New York PrincipuW Association, which 
has been at Albany opposing the bill for the establishment of a 
small Board of Education in New York City instead of the pres- 
ent one of forty-six members each representing a municipal dis- 
trict. The small Board movement is supported by eminent edu- 
cators, but the principals uphold the present arrangement for 
reasons meditation makes clear. It seems probable that the 
New York Teachers' Council will hesitate to take up this ques- 
tion, as it will hesitate to touch some others of wide significance 
in the schools. 

It is clear from these limited reviews of the different types of 
teachers' organizations that not one of them is without its poten- 
tial part in the school administration and few without an actual 
influence. That influence is, however, at present spasmodic, 
sometimes ill or narrowly exercised, and seldom indeed based on 
instituted recognition from the authorities. Those authorities 
often claim that a lack of real interest in the larger questions of 



teachers' associations 65 

school policy is proven by the character of teachers' clubs dis- 
cussions. The contention is just, but were there a representative 
teacher body with a recognized function in the school system, 
those larger questions would become vitalized through the study 
and personal interest of the membership in the teachers' organ- 
izations. Indeed it seems certain that were means provided for 
the expression of teachers' views on school policy, fewer volun- 
tary organizations would be formed on lines of class or material 
interest. 



CHAPTER rV 

FACTS AND FORECASTS 

The close study and comparison of the forms of teacher-par- 
ticipation now instituted in various school systems of the United 
States make clear certain points. 

1. The formation of teachers' councils, whether the body of 
teachers be large or small, is entirely feasible. 

2. The method of formation must depend largely upon local 
conditions, but should be decided upon by mutual agreement 
between the administration and the teaching force. 

3. In larger cities, such bodies to be effective should be a part 
of the school system and can be so only when their organization 
is authorized by the highest school authority, which properly 
retains the power of veto. 

4. The questions considered by such councils may properly 
deal with any matter related to the curriculum or the internal 
administration of the schools; including the status and scale of 
salaries of the teachers, where these do not involve questions of 
appointment. 

I. Risks and contingencies in institutioned forms op 

TEACHER-PARTICIPATION. 

1. EMPHASIZING DISSENSIONS AMONG THE TEACHING BODY. 

The fact that antagonisms exist between the ''aggregated 
units" of the teaching force cannot be denied. In Portland, 
Oregon, as we have seen, these antagonisms were the bar to ob- 
taining a common basis of agreement as to the representatives of 
each unit in an advisory body. It will have been noticed, too, 
that while the representatives of high schools have brought no 
factional disturbance into the New York Council, they strongly 
suspect that the opinions of their special group will not have 
fair influence there. It is evident that a much strono^er sense 



FACTS AND FORECASTS 67 

of solidarity must exist before the apprehension or the fact of 
group disagreement is eliminated. There are many who claim 
that the educational influence of Councils will gradually tone 
down jealousies of every sort. Ultimate harmony must depend 
upon the spirit of the teaching body as a whole, manifest in its 
power to sink minor differences for the sake of major advantages. 

2. CREATING DIVISION OF AUTHORITY AND CONSEQUENT LOSS 
OF EFFECTIVENESS IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM AS A WHOLE. 

The existing Teachers' Councils have so far, though legally 
and efficiently constituted as deliberative and advisory bodies, 
no final authority. In fact they could not have it without legal 
enactment by the State or new provisions in city charters con- 
ferring upon them powers now possessed only by the Board of 
Education. Such power would in certain cases be likely to over- 
ride that of the City Superintendent or the Board of Education. 
There can be found certain teachers who favor this arrangement ; 
it will probably be long before their views are shared by the 
majority. But even with the present status it cannot be denied 
that a body reporting directly to the Board of Education and in 
no sense an adjunct of the Superintendent's office must have 
uncommon, almost unobtainable sagacity and self-restraint, if its 
recommendations do not at times clash with opinions of the 
Superintendency. If, as is highly possible, a difference of view 
becomes permanent the whole school system must suffer. That 
a good many city administrations apprehend this is a reason why 
more councils have not been established. As a cautious super- 
intendent recently observed, "Councils might be a help if the 
teachers did not get to think they were the whole thing. ' ' When 
they do think this there must take place disturbances disastrous 
to the children's interest. 

3. THE DOMINANCE OF A MAJORITY RULE PREJUDICIAL TO THE 
TRUER INTERESTS OF THE SCHOOLS AND THE COMMUNITY. 

This danger, always to be reckoned with in bodies represent- 
ing a large constituency, may be largely averted by a wise use 
of the committee system. It must, nevertheless, always be pres- 
ent until teachers as a class are characterized by a larger regard 
for the community interests as a whole. A large organization 



68 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

composed almost entirely of teachers from resident families lias 
great power to influence local opinion and legislation. A nota- 
ble recent instance is the reactionary policy adopted by the Bal- 
timore public school authorities; a policy practically dictated 
by a large teachers' association keenly alive to class interests. 

The difficulty is summed up in an excerpt from a valuable 
book on various educational subjects by an eminent English 
educator. ''Much is often said of the importance of an organiza- 
tion which will bring the collective opinion of the teaching body 
to bear on the solution of questions and enable educators as au- 
thorities to speak with one voice on points on which outside 
opinion has to be formed and general measures are contemplated. 
There may be times no doubt when such expressions of opinions 
are needed, but they are rare ; and when they occur it will prob- 
ably be found that unanimity of judgment is as little attainable 
within the precincts of the profession as without them and that 
it is by the utterances of a few of the wisest rather than by the 
resolutions of large bodies, that in the long run opinion is formed, 
great measures are initiated, and reforms are affected. ' ' ^ 

II. Advantages claimed for the establishment of councils. 

1. COUNCILS FURNISH A MEDIUM OF EXPRESSION FOR THE 
WHOLE TEACHING BODY. 

The Superintendent of the New York Schools in a recent inter- 
view announced that the total teaching and supervising force at 
the close of the year 1913-14 was 20,448, exclusive of teachers in 
evening schools, vacation schools, and playgrounds. Of this 
number, about 19,000 are principals and teachers ; of these again, 
87.4 per cent are women, 12.6 per cent men. This is the great 
constituency represented by the New York Teachers' Council. 
That it is on the whole adequately and fairly represented is due 
to the existence of voluntary teachers ' organizations. The groups 
of which these are made up are drawn together by various im- 
pulses and incentives; usually the natural one of a common 
interest in a special branch of teaching or a special class of 

1 Sir Joshua Fitch, Educational Aims and Methods. 



FACTS AND FORECASTS 69 

pupils. But whatever the basis of formation, each group has a 
member of the Teachers' Council whom it can regard as its rep- 
resentative. The several associations to which these council mem- 
bers belong have the opportunity in their own meetings of debat- 
ing matters which have to do with group or common welfare ; but 
their well-considered suggestions need no longer be given a 
mournful burial in the minutes of a special organization, since 
that organization 's representative may be instructed to bring the 
matter before the Council where it receives more effective con- 
sideration, and may be carried up to the highest authority. The 
institution of "Group Councils" in Chicago, effects that same 
purpose for its 7,000 teachers. Teachers in these cities can no 
longer affirm, ''There is no way for our convictions to gain a 
hearing. ' ' 

2. COUNCILS ARE MODIFIERS OF EXTREME OPINIONS. 

Discussion in an instituted council is not only stimulating to 
freedom of expression, it also modifies the pronouncements of ex- 
tremists and faddists. Their ideas are no longer in danger of 
being endorsed ''for peace's sake," since an organization will be 
reluctant to instruct its representative to present extreme views 
in the council. 

No doubt foolish and unconsidered proposals will occasionally 
be made even in and by the dignified councils, since no group of 
mortals, even though instructors by profession, can be secure 
against erratic, short-visioned, or prejudiced proposals from its 
members. The committee system in New York is, however, a 
safeguard against such dangers. Indeed the record of the ques- 
tions taken up in the first year's report of the New York Council 
is remarkable for the impression it gives of the dignity and value 
of its discussions, when one reflects that 20,000 teachers found 
here at last an open common for the explosion of the long smol- 
dering bombs of suggestion. The Council is, therefore, the 
mouthpiece of the teaching body and gives them that voice in the 
educational counsels which many a thoughtful teacher has long 
envied when reading for instance the programs of the National 
Education Association. 



70 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

3. COUNCILS OFFER A SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL COURSE TO 
THEIR MEMBERS. 

''The training of teachers" is a topic which holds an inevi- 
table place in every state and city school report, preempts many 
pages in the ''proceedings" of conferences and conventions, and 
occupies the attention of whole faculties in Normal Colleges and 
Training Schools. Whatever be the result of all this effort so 
far as creating fitness to impart instruction is concerned, it must 
be conceded that teachers as a body are untrained in some direc- 
tions seriously affecting their relations to their particular task, 
and discounting the influence upon the community which their 
position justifies that community to expect. Notwithstanding 
the many and conspicuous exceptions, it is acknowledged even 
by their own special advocates that "public school teachers do 
not know how to express themselves. ' ' ^ Their outlook is too 
often narrow and prejudiced, a fact emphasized by state and city 
school officials, when they so frequently insist on some device that 
shall "broaden the outlook or remove the mental limitation of 
the average teacher." Fine courses of lectures, excellent pro- 
grams for clubs, conferences, and annual meetings are being oper- 
ated, so to speak, all over this land with this end in view. But 
as it has been tersely put, "it is high time that it be universally 
recognized that teachers cannot be lectured or entertained into 
scholarship or professional power. " ^ A session or two as a mem- 
ber of a Council aware of its responsibility to a great body of 
constituents on the one hand, and its influence upon potential 
legislation or authoritative action on the other, will do more to 
develop the power to discriminate, to be judicial, to decide upon 
big questions with big results in mind, than any series of sittings 
to absorb cultural ideas. 

But not only is the Council membership educated into larger 
views and greater conclusions, it gains also a closer knowledge 
of the practical side of many a school problem in regard to which 
teachers in despair or exasperation have exclaimed, "why not?" 
and ' ' why ? ' ' For the first time they fully comprehend the tech- 
nical or administrative difficulties of realizing propositions, at- 

1 Boston Teachers' News Letter. 

2 Lloyd Wolfe, former Superintendent of Schools, San Antonio, Texas. 



FACTS AND FORECASTS 71 

tractive enough in theory, but bristling with thorns of difficulty 
when the plan for practical application must be made to suit 
thousands of teachers and tens of thousands of children. The 
delays and ''red tape" incidental to centralized administration 
become less inexplicable as the Council membership is asked to 
propose how certain measures are to be put into actual operation. 

"As an agency for the improvement of teachers in service the 
participation of teachers in the determination of educational 
policies should logically take high rank. It should furnish the 
motive for the efficient functioning of other agencies. A teacher 
who has the duty and privilege of suggesting and defending 
changes in the course of study and other educational policies 
would have a genuine motive for consulting school reports, and 
for reading educational literature. Furthermore, the exercise 
of initiative and the bearing of responsibility would give added 
dignity and attractiveness to the teachers ' calling. ' ' ^ 

Surely the practice in discrimination between apparent and 
real significance in school problems, in balancing the relative 
values of suggested or of opposing policies, must supply new 
stimulus and create new efficiency in the council membership 
and by its reflected effects lift the ideals and enlighten the prac- 
tice of the whole teaching force. 

4. TEE PRACTICAL BENEFIT OF COUNCILS TO THE ADMINIS- 
TRATION. 

The questions which in theory and so far in practice are suit- 
able for Council discussion are mainly those upon which the act- 
ing manager, in other words the Superintendent, requires guiding 
information. Councils should, as the most thoughtful educators 
conclude, rarely have dealings with the Board of Education. In 
an administration formed on the general plan now recognized as 
most fit and workable in large cities, namely, with a small Board 
concerned with the larger school policies and the business man- 
agement, and a Superintendent fully empowered to deal with 
matters of internal administration, it is evident that the Coun- 
cil's natural connection is with the Superintendent and his as- 
sistants. 

1 Euediger, Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service. 



72 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



( ( 



I intended," says Superintendent Holmes of New Britain, 
**when the Council was organized that it should be an advisory 
body for the Superintendent, an adjunct of this office. It has 
been all that and more." Councils in large cities do tend to 
be something more, but under the present methods of school 
government their main contribution to the administration will 
be that of expert advice. 



APPENDIX A 

REPORTS MADE BY THE NEW YORK TEACHERS' COUNCIL, 1914 

1. Report of the Committee on Truancy and Delinquency; 
Cure for the Truant Problem. 

2. Report of the Committee on Courses of Study. Results 
of the Trial Course in Arithmetic. 

3. Report of the Committee on Professional Interests. A 
plan for the rating' of high and training school teachers as a sub- 
stitute for the rating known as ' ' Superior Merit. ' ' 

4. Report of the Committee on School Organization and Ad- 
ministration. Present plans for reducing part-time ; its defects, 
if any and the changes which should be made. 

5. Committee on School Records and Statistics. Suggestions 
for the reduction of clerical work in the schools and the improve- 
ment in forms, blanks, etc. 

Note: Several of these have been printed as bulletins by the Board 
of Education. 

APPENDIX B 

teachers' ASSOCIATIONS IN FOUR LARGE CITIES 

Newark St. Louis 

1. The Principals' Association. The Principals' Club. 

2. The School Men's Club. The Schoolmasters' Club. 

3. The Men High School Teach- The Men's Club of High School 

ers' Association. Teachers. 

4. The Women High School The Froebel Society. 

Teachers' Association. 

5. The Grammar Vice-Principals' The Society of Pedagogy. 

Association. 

6. The Primary Vice-Principals' The Teachers' Fellowship Society. 

Association. 

7. The Kindergarten Teachers' The Teachers' Mutual Aid So- 

Association. ciety. 

8. The Teachers' Guild. The Teachers' Benevolent An- 

nuity Association. 



74 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

APPENDIX B— Continued 

Boston 

1. Association, of School Principals. 

2. High School Masters' Club (Men). 

3. School Men's Club. 

4. High School Assistants' Association (Women). 

5. Masters' Assistants' Club (Women). 

6. Sub-masters' Club (Men). 

7. Association of Teachers of Physical Education. 

8. Manual Arts Club. 

9. Sewing Teachers' Association. 

10. Normal School Kindergarten Club. 

11. Normal School Biological Club. 

12. School Playground Association. 

13. Public School Nurses' Association. 

14. Boston Teachers' Club (Women). 

15. Elementary Teachers' Club (Women). 

16. Lady Teachers' Association (Sick Benefit). 

17. Teachers' Mutual Benefit Association. 

18. Boston Educational Society.^ 

19. Club of First Assistants in Charge of Buildings. 

The Masters' Association, the Headmasters' Association (high 
school principals), and the High School Councils are omitted as 
official, not voluntary organizations. 

New York 

1. High School Principals' Association. 

2. Men Principals' Association, Manhattan and the Bronx. 

3. Association of Women Principals of Public Schools in the City of 

New York. 

4. High School Teachers' Association of New York City. 

5. Male High School Teachers' Association of New York City. 

6. Evening High School Teachers' Association. 

7. Principals' Association of the City of New York. 

8. Association of Assistants to Principals of New York City. 

9. Association of Male First Assistants in High Schools of New York 

City. _ 

10. Association of Men Teachers and Principals of the City of New 

York. 

11. Association of Men Teachers in the Elementary Schools of the City 

of New York. 

12. Women First Assistants' Club. 

1 Not composed wholly of teachers. 



APPENDIX 75 

APPENDIX B— Concluded 

13. Association of Elementary Teachers of Modern Languages. 

14. New York Association of High School Teachers of German. 

15. New York Association of Biology Teachers. 

16. New York City Association of High School Teachers of English. 

17. New York Public School Kindergarten Association. 

18. Physical Training Teachers' Association of Greater New York. 

19. Recreation Center Teachers' Association. 

20. Association of Public School Teachers of Crippled Children in the 

City of New York. 

21. Association of Supervisory Teachers of Drawing of Greater New 

York. 

22. Association of Supervisory Teachers of Music. 

23. Association of Teachers of Domestic Art. 

24. Association of Model Teachers of the City of New York. 

25. Teachers of Shopwork. 

26. Brooklyn Principals' Association. 

27. Brooklyn Teachers' Association. 

28. Brooklyn Women Principals' Association. 

29. Heads of Department Association of the Borough of Brooklyn. 

30. Class Teachers' Organization of Brooklyn. 

31. Men Teachers' Club of Staten Island. 

32. Staten Island Women Teachers' Club. 

33. Teachers' Association of the Borough of Queens. 

34. Principals' Council of Queens. 

35. Critic Teachers' Association. 

36. Association of Men Teachers on the Eligible List prior to January 

1, 1912. 

37. Interborough Association of Women Teachers. 

38. Elementary Class Teachers' Association of New York (la to 6b). 

39. Women Principals' Eligible List Association of the Public Schools 

of the City of New York. 

40. Women's Educational Council. 



